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Coma (comet) The coma is the nebulous envelope around the nucleus of a comet, formed when the comet passes near the Sun in its highly elliptical orbit. As the comet warms, parts of it sublimate; [1] this gives a comet a diffuse appearance when viewed through telescopes and distinguishes it from stars. The word coma comes from the Greek κόμη ...
Comet. A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or coma surrounding the nucleus, and sometimes a tail of gas and dust gas blown out from the coma.
Comet nucleus. The nucleus of Comet Tempel 1. The nucleus is the solid, central part of a comet, formerly termed a dirty snowball or an icy dirtball. A cometary nucleus is composed of rock, dust, and frozen gases. When heated by the Sun, the gases sublime and produce an atmosphere surrounding the nucleus known as the coma.
Rosetta was a space probe built by the European Space Agency launched on 2 March 2004. Along with Philae, its lander module, Rosetta performed a detailed study of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (67P). [9] [10] During its journey to the comet, the spacecraft performed flybys of Earth, Mars, and the asteroids 21 Lutetia and 2867 Šteins.
Two comets will pass by Earth this week and one will come close enough to break a 250-year record. Comet P/2016 BA14 will still be a safe 2.2 million miles away when it flies by on Tuesday, but it ...
Lists of comets. Coin showing Caesar's Comet as a star with eight rays, tail upward. Non-periodic comets are seen only once. They are usually on near- parabolic orbits that will not return to the vicinity of the Sun for thousands of years, if ever. Periodic comets usually have elongated elliptical orbits, and usually return to the vicinity of ...
Lists of astronomical objects. Selection of astronomical bodies and objects: Moon Mimas and Ida, an asteroid with its own moon, Dactyl. Comet Lovejoy and Jupiter, a giant gas planet. The Sun; Sirius A with Sirius B, a white dwarf; the Crab Nebula, a remnant supernova. A black hole (artist concept); Vela Pulsar, a rotating neutron star.
This is a list of comets (bodies that travel in elliptical, parabolic, and sometimes hyperbolic orbits and display a tail behind them) listed by type. Comets are sorted into four categories: periodic comets (e.g. Halley's Comet), non-periodic comets (e.g. Comet Hale–Bopp), comets with no meaningful orbit (the Great Comet of 1106), and lost comets (), displayed as either P (periodic), C (non ...