10 facts about comets: 1. Nucleus, coma and tail are parts that compose a comet. Nucleus is the icy and solid center, coma is the thin atmosphere covering the nucleus and tail is the heat effect of the Sun on comet’s atmosphere. 2. In history, comets have been recorded as omens of doom. Roman Emperor Nero believed the arrival of a comet foretold his assassination and had every one of his successors killed. 3. Comet orbits on the Sun are divided into three: every 20 years or less, every 200 years or more and in-between which are called Halley-types comets. 4. There is a probability that a comet could hit our planet. That is why experts work hard in order to understand the nature of these objects and create necessary protection should one be on a collision path with Earth. 5. New research suggests that a comet smashed into the Sahara desert some 28 million years ago. Earlier this month, scientists reported that a tiny pebble found in Sahara -- dubbed Hypatia -- came from the comets icy core (nucleus). 6. Comet leftovers create meteor showers. Along their orbits around the sun, comets shed small rocks that form into a dust trail, or meteoroid stream. When Earth passes through the stream, we see a meteor shower. 7. Comets have been observed for millennia. Around 500 B.C., Greek philosophers coined the word komotes -- literally, long-haired -- to refer to the comets they observed in the sky. 8. Comets have two tails -- not one. As comets approach the sun, solar wind and the suns magnetic field sweep particles from the coma into tails that stretch behind the comets head. Dust particles form a curved tail that can stretch up to 60 million miles in length. 9. The fuzzy cloud surrounding a comets nucleus is called a coma. As comets approach the sun, ice in their nuclei is converted to a gas. The gas spews outward from the nucleus, forming a thin atmosphere that can grow to 60,000 miles or more in diameter. 10. In 2007 the coma of Comet Holmes was found to be an astonishing 869,900 miles in diameter. Thats larger than the diameter of the sun!
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 18:04:45 +0000