what’s a comet?

what’s a comet?

A comet is frozen water and gases mixed with dust.

what’s a comet?

A comet is frozenwater and gasesmixed with dust.

Basically, an icy, muddy snowball flying through space.

what’s a comet?

A comet loses shape and mass as it orbits the sun and heats up.

what’s a comet? life stages of a comet

A comet loses shape and mass as it orbits the sun and heats up.

what’s a comet?life stages of a comet moving slowly

and frozen

to moving quickly and sending off debris

Like anything else that orbits in space, the closer comets are to the Sun the faster they move.

comets in orbit

comets in orbit

You can’t see comets until they’re passing close to the Sun.

comets in orbitAs a comet moves towards the Sun, you begin to see its anatomy.

comet anatomy

Ice in the core turns to gas and forms a cloud, called a “coma.”

Radiation from the sun pushes dust away from the coma.

comet anatomy

This looks like a “dust tail.”

comet anatomy

Charged particles from the sun convert some of the comet’s gases into ions, forming an “ion tail.”

comet anatomy

why study comets?

Comets played a major role in the evolution of the Earth, starting billions of years ago.

By studying comets,comprised of material from extremely cold regions of our own solar system,

scientists believe they

offer clues to the forming of the

solar system.

comprised of material from extremely cold regions of our own solar system,

By studying comets,

Comets

may have also brought to Earth the water & organic molecules

that allowed life to form.

The University of Arizona where more than 52% of all near-Earth objects including comets were discovered

Learn more about these discoveries at UA Research

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