Comets Created by: Christian Blue Period 6 Science 7A

What are Comets???? A comet is an icy body that releases gas or dust. A comet consists of: a solid nucleus core, a cloudy atmosphere called the Coma and one or two tails. We can see some comets because the gas and dust in their comas and tails reflect sunlight. Astronomers believe that comets are leftover debris from a collection of gas, ice, rocks, and dust that formed the outer planets about 4.6 billion years ago. Some scientists believe that comets originally brought Earth some of the water and the carbon-based molecules that make up living things.

How are comets made??? Comets are believed to have two sources. Long-period comets (they take more than 200 years to complete an orbit around the Sun) originate from the Oort Cloud. Short-period comets (they take less than 200 years to complete an orbit around the Sun) originate from the Kuiper Belt.

Where do they go? Comets orbit around the sun like planets but they take longer. Most of them float far beyond Pluto!

Did You Know? Many people think that a comets tail is always following behind it, but actually the coma, or tail can either be behind the comet or in front of it. Which way the tail is pointing depends on where the Sun is. So if a comet is traveling towards the Sun then the tail will follow behind, but if the comet is traveling away from the Sun the tail will be in front of the comet.

Any Questions? Go ahead, ask away………

The End!! (don’t cry) I hope you enjoyed my presentation and learned more about comets!