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This article is about the astronomical objects. For other uses, see Comet (disambiguation).
Comets – nucleus, coma and tail:

 Top: 9P/Tempel (impactor collision: Deep Impact), and 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (Rosetta)

 Middle: 17P/Holmes and its blue ionized tail, and 81P/Wild (Wild 2) visited by Stardust
 Bottom: Hale–Bopp seen from Earth in 1997, and C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) imaged from Earth orbit

A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms
and begins to release gases, a process called outgassing. This produces a visible
atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are due to the
effects of solar radiation and the solar wind acting upon the nucleus of the
comet. Comet nuclei range from a few hundred meters to tens of kilometers across and
are composed of loose collections of ice, dust, and small rocky particles. The coma may
be up to 15 times Earth's diameter, while the tail may stretch beyond one astronomical
unit. If sufficiently bright, a comet may be seen from Earth without the aid of a telescope
and may subtend an arc of 30° (60 Moons) across the sky. Comets have been observed
and recorded since ancient times by many cultures.
Comets usually have highly eccentric elliptical orbits, and they have a wide range
of orbital periods, ranging from several years to potentially several millions of
years. Short-period comets originate in the Kuiper belt or its associated scattered disc,
which lie beyond the orbit of Neptune. Long-period comets are thought to originate in
 the Oort cloud, a spherical cloud of icy bodies extending from outside the Kuiper belt to
halfway to the nearest star.[1] Long-period comets are set in motion towards the Sun
from the Oort cloud by gravitational perturbations caused by passing stars and
the galactic tide. Hyperbolic comets may pass once through the inner Solar System
before being flung to interstellar space. The appearance of a comet is called an
apparition.
Comets are distinguished from asteroids by the presence of an extended, gravitationally
unbound atmosphere surrounding their central nucleus. This atmosphere has parts
termed the coma (the central part immediately surrounding the nucleus) and the tail (a
typically linear section consisting of dust or gas blown out from the coma by the Sun's
light pressure or outstreaming solar wind plasma). However, extinct comets that have
passed close to the Sun many times have lost nearly all of their volatile ices and dust
and may come to resemble small asteroids.[2] Asteroids are thought to have a different
origin from comets, having formed inside the orbit of Jupiter rather than in the outer
Solar System.[3][4] The discovery of main-belt comets and active centaur minor planets
has blurred the distinction between asteroids and comets. In the early 21st century, the
discovery of some minor bodies with long-period comet orbits, but characteristics of
inner solar system asteroids, were called Manx comets. They are still classified as
comets, such as C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS).[5] 27 Manx comets were found from 2013 to
2017.[6]
As of July 2019 there are 6,619 known comets,[7] a number that is steadily increasing as
more are discovered. However, this represents only a tiny fraction of the total potential
comet population, as the reservoir of comet-like bodies in the outer Solar System (in
the Oort cloud) is estimated to be one trillion.[8][9] Roughly one comet per year is visible to
the naked eye, though many of those are faint and unspectacular. [10] Particularly bright
examples are called "great comets". Comets have been visited by unmanned probes
such as the European Space Agency's Rosetta, which became the first to land a robotic
spacecraft on a comet,[11] and NASA's Deep Impact, which blasted a crater on
Comet Tempel 1 to study its interior.

Contents

 1Etymology
 2Physical characteristics
o 2.1Nucleus
o 2.2Coma
o 2.3Bow shock
o 2.4Tails
o 2.5Jets
 3Orbital characteristics
o 3.1Short period
o 3.2Long period
o 3.3Oort cloud and Hills cloud
o 3.4Exocomets
 4Effects of comets
o 4.1Connection to meteor showers
o 4.2Comets and impact on life
o 4.3Fear of comets
 5Fate of comets
o 5.1Departure (ejection) from Solar System
o 5.2Volatiles exhausted
o 5.3Breakup and collisions
 6Nomenclature
 7History of study
o 7.1Early observations and thought
o 7.2Orbital studies
o 7.3Studies of physical characteristics
o 7.4Spacecraft missions
o 7.5Great comets
o 7.6Sungrazing comets
o 7.7Unusual comets
o 7.8Centaurs
 8Observation
o 8.1Lost
 9In popular culture
 10Gallery
 11See also
 12References
o 12.1Bibliography
 13Further reading
 14External links

Etymology[edit]

A comet was mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that allegedly made an appearance in 729 AD.

The word comet derives from the Old English cometa from

the Latin comēta or comētēs. That, in turn, is a latinization of the Greek κομήτης
("wearing long hair"), and the Oxford English Dictionary notes that the term (ἀστὴρ)
κομήτης already meant "long-haired star, comet" in Greek. Κομήτης was derived from
κομᾶν ("to wear the hair long"), which was itself derived from κόμη ("the hair of the
head") and was used to mean "the tail of a comet". [12][13]
The astronomical symbol for comets is   (in Unicode ☄ U+2604), consisting of a small
disc with three hairlike extensions.[14]

Physical characteristics[edit]
Diagram showing the physical characteristics of a Comet. a) Nucleus, b) Coma, c) Gas/Ion tail d) Dust tail, e)
Hydrogen envelope, f) Movement of the Comet g) Direction to the Sun.

Nucleus[edit]

Nucleus of 103P/Hartley as imaged during a spacecraft flyby. The nucleus is about 2 km in length.

Main article: Comet nucleus

The solid, core structure of a comet is known as the nucleus. Cometary nuclei are
composed of an amalgamation of rock, dust, water ice, and frozen carbon
dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and ammonia.[15] As such, they are popularly
described as "dirty snowballs" after Fred Whipple's model.[16] Comets with a higher dust
content have been called "icy dirtballs".[17] The term "icy dirtballs" arose after observation
of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 collision with an "impactor" probe sent by NASA Deep Impact
mission in July 2005. Research conducted in 2014 suggests that comets are like "deep
fried ice cream", in that their surfaces are formed of dense crystalline ice mixed
with organic compounds, while the interior ice is colder and less dense.[18]
The surface of the nucleus is generally dry, dusty or rocky, suggesting that the ices are
hidden beneath a surface crust several metres thick. In addition to the gases already
mentioned, the nuclei contain a variety of organic compounds, which may
include methanol, hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde, ethanol, ethane, and perhaps more
complex molecules such as long-chain hydrocarbons and amino acids.[19][20] In 2009, it
was confirmed that the amino acid glycine had been found in the comet dust recovered
by NASA's Stardust mission.[21] In August 2011, a report, based on NASA studies
of meteorites found on Earth, was published suggesting DNA and RNA components
(adenine, guanine, and related organic molecules) may h