Comets, meteors, and asteroids: their origin, properties, and geology

Comets are small celestial bodies, consisting mainly of remains and gases that make bold in an elongated elliptical or nearly parabolic subject around the sun. When a comet is far from the sun, it consists of a dense solid body or conglomerate of bodies called the nucleus, made up of frozen gases with excite off the groundicles of heavier substances interspersed through discover. This is a a couple of(prenominal) miles in diameter. As it approaches the sun, a luminous cloud of dust and gases called the syncope envelops the nucleus. The comas luminosity is caused by the molecules absorbing and reflecting the radiation of the sun. As the comet approaches the sun, the solar intrude drives particles and gases from the nucleus and coma to form a tail which can extend as much as 160 million km in length. The solar wind always makes the tail stream out in the perplexity opposite the sun; i.e., it follows the head as the comet approaches the sun and precedes it as the comet passes perihelion (its closest point to the sun) and moves away. Modern theories suggest that comets were organise during the fundamental law of the solar system and are permanent members of it. havegazer J. H. Oort has theorized that a spherical shell or cloud of to a greater extent than 100 billion long-period comets surrounds the solar system at a distance of 75,000-150,000 AUs.

While the comets move very tardily in this huge storage cloud, a passing star whitethorn change their orbits enough to force some of them into the cozy part of the solar system. (Seeds, 410) Astronomer G. P. Kuiper, noniced that Oorts cloud of comets did not adequately peak for the short-period c! omets (those wit solar orbits less than two hundred years), proposed the existence of a disk-shaped region of minor planets outside the orbit of Neptune as... If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

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