Water ice, dry ice, ammonia ice, dirt, and Unknown. Estimated to be over one Some comets are bright enough to be rocks. Are also called snowballs” trillion. seen without a telescope. A telescope is “dirty or dirtballs.” needed to see most comets. “icy Parts of a Comet Nucleus Coma Tail The actual comet; the snowball.” that vaporize and surround the Made of dust particles and gases pushed “dirty nucleus as the comet gets close to the away from the comet by the solar wind; Sun. always points away from the Sun. Comets Begin Their Journey Kuiper Belt Where Found Distance From Sun Number Size Period (One (miles) orbit of Sun) Outside of Neptune’s Closest 2,790,000,000 Over one billion Small chunks to 62 2 to 200 years – orbit Farthest One light year miles across. – (6,000,000,000,000 miles) Note Kuiper Belt objects cannot be seen without a telescope. – Oort Cloud Where Found Distance From Sun Number Size Period (One (miles) orbit of Sun)
Water ice, dry ice, ammonia ice, dirt, and rocks. Are also called “dirty snowballs” or “icy dirtballs.” Unknown. Estimated to be over one trillion. Some comets are bright enough to be seen without a telescope. A telescope is needed to see most comets. Parts of a Comet Nucleus Coma Tail The actual comet; the “dirty snowball.” that vaporize and surround the nucleus as the comet gets close to the Sun. Made of dust particles and gases pushed away from the comet by the solar wind; always points away from the Sun. Comets Begin Their Journey Kuiper Belt Where Found Distance From Sun (miles) Number Size Period (One orbit of Sun) Outside of Neptune’s orbit Closest – 2,790,000,000 Farthest – One light year (6,000,000,000,000 miles) Over one billion Small chunks to 62 miles across. 2 to 200 years Note – Kuiper Belt objects cannot be seen without a telescope. Oort Cloud Where Found Distance From Sun (miles) Number Size Period (One orbit of Sun)