What are Comets?
Comets are made up of dust, rock, and ice. But most of the part is made up of gas which is present in the form of ice. These are formed 4.6 billion years ago with a solar system. These are counted in one of the oldest bodies in the solar system.
Comets are named after their discovery, and there are thousands of known comets.
However, only a few comets are visible to the naked eye from the earth, and these are the most famous.
Comet
How Comets are Formed?
Comets are believed to have formed during the creation of our solar system, over 4 billion years ago. Most of the matter present in space is merged into planets but some remained to form small chunks of frozen gas and dust. This dust and gas eventually coalesced into small, rocky bodies. Just about a few kilometers across in the outer region of the solar system where temperatures were cold enough to produce ice. Comets spend most of their time in the outer reaches of our solar system, beyond the orbit of Neptune.
Parts of Comets( Credit- NASA space place)
Where Do Comets Come From?
Comets are believed to originate from two main regions in the solar system: the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. The Oort Cloud is a hypothetical region located at the edge of the solar system, composed of icy bodies that were never incorporated into planets. Oort cloud is home to the majority of today’s comets. on the other hand, Kuiper Belt is a region of space beyond Neptune that contains a large number of icy objects, including pluto.
How Comets Traveled?
Occasionally, gravitational perturbations from other bodies, such as Jupiter, can send a comet on a trajectory that brings it closer to the sun. As we know they are made up of dust and ice. As a comet approaches the sun, the heat causes the ice to vapourize and release gas and dust, forming a glowing coma or atmosphere around the comet's nucleus. This coma is very large in size and the solar wind pushes the coma into a tail that can extend for millions of kilometers in the direction opposite the sun.
Comets traveled(Credit- Science photo library)
Similar Bodies Like Comets
There are many other celestial bodies like comets present in space. Some of them are described below:-
- Asteroids:- They are the largest kinds of space rocks. These rocks revolve around the sun, in an area between mars and Jupiter called the asteroid belt. The asteroid belt has an inner and an outer part. The inner part is made up of metals like gold, iron, platinum, and nickel. The outer part is made up of rocks. There are millions of asteroids in our solar system, but only about 3,000 of them have been named.
- Meteoroids:- These are the small pieces of rock or metal that break off a comet or an asteroid when they crash into each other. They can also form from the debris left behind by a comet. When these small pieces of rocks are pulled into the earth’s atmosphere, they are called meteors which we discuss below.
- Meteors:- These rocks are generally called shooting or falling stars. They are also made up of rocks and dust. Meteors begin as meteoroids but they burn up upon entering Earth's atmosphere. Most meteors are very small, ranging in size from a grain of sand to a pebble. They are typically traveling at speeds of 30,000 to 70,000 miles per hour when they enter the atmosphere, which causes them to heat up and burn up in a matter of seconds.
- Meteorites:- These are those meteoroids that do not burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. Instead, it falls to the earth’s surface. Millions of meteors enter the earth’s surface every day. But only a few of them reach the earth’s surface as a meteorite. Most of them land in the ocean.
Comets are fascinating objects that have captured the attention of people for centuries. They are small, icy bodies that spend most of their time in the outer reaches of our solar system. When they approach the sun, they create a glowing halo and a long, bright tail. There are thousands of known comets, but only a few are visible from Earth. The most famous of these include Halley's comet and Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9. Comets provide valuable information about the history and composition of our solar system, and astronomers continue to study them to this day.
Thank you for reading.
by-Vidit Kumar Singh