COMETS

Where did the • some believe that the name comet

was given by Aristotle who observed
name came comets and believed that they are stars
from? with hair, from the Greek word that
means “ hair of the head”

• Others believe that comets’ name

came from Latin words stella cometa
or “ hairy star”.
Comets • are bodies made of ice and dust.
( the ice is made up of frozen water and
gases like methane, carbon dioxide, carbon
monoxide, ammonia, mixed with dust of rocks
and metals)
- They originated from a dense shell of material
surrounding the Oort cloud, the outer edge of
the solar system that is about trillion miles
away from the sun.
- their orbits are big, highly elliptical,
extending far beyond the orbit of Pluto
 They have a 1. Nucleus – believed to be solid, containing the chunk
of dust, ice or frozen gases, water vapor and other

cloudy 2.
materials.
Coma – cloud-like, surrounds the nucleus, composed
appearance of gas and small bits of rocks and dust

and they
3. tail – made of gas or dust particles, or both.
Sometimes a comet may have one or more tails

contain three - blown away from the comet by the action of the solar
wind

basic parts:
tails • Ion tail - are composed of simple ionized molecules,
including carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. The
molecules are blown away from the comet by the
action of the solar wind—streams of hot gases ejected
from the solar corona, the outermost atmosphere of
the
• Dust tail- Comets frequently also display a second,
curved tail composed of fine dust blown from the coma
by the pressure of solar radiation. These dust tails are
usually brighter than the ion tails, show less detail, and
have a yellowish color. Reflected sunlight makes them
visible..
 Comets are • 1. short-period comets ( periodic comets) are those
that take less than 200 years.

grouped • there are some that appear once and never again.

according to • Example: Halley’s comet

their order of • Edmund Halley predicted it to appear every 75 to 76

years. Its earliest appearance was 240 BC, sighted by
appearance Chinese astronomers and the last appearance was in
1986. it is predicted to reappear sometime in 2061.

• 2. long-period comets have orbital period of more than

200 years-
• Example- Hale-Bopp
 Kuiper Belt
- believed to be the origin
of the short-period comets
- object coming from this
region are found orbiting the
sun from beyond Neptune
and Pluto
 Oort Cloud
- a theoretical gathering of
clouds in spherical motion at
the outer edge of the solar
system

- this region is where long-

period comets form
METEOROID

METEORS

METEORITES
METEOROID • Believed to be a fragment of asteroid or remnant of a
comet and some say it is a space debris made of stony
metallic rocks
• Travel a great speed that exceeds 100,000 miles per
hour in the space
• Sometimes strike the earth’s atmosphere when they
are pulled by the earth’s gravity as they pass 55 miles
from the earth.
METEORS • ARE METEOROID THAT ENTER THE EARTH’S
ATMOSPHERE
• MOST METEORS ARE LARGER THAN A GRAIN OF
SAND WHEN THEY ENTER THE ATMOSPHERE AND
WHEN BURNED DUE TO THE FRICTION WITH THE
EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE, THEY GLOW AND VAPORIZA
COMPLETELY DURING THEIR FALL.
.
METEORITES • remains of meteoroids that reach the earth’s surface.
• some massive meteorites create crater like the
Barringer Crater in Arizona, USA, which is 1.2 km in
diameter.
• made of iron, silicates or a mixture of iron and rock
materials
 METEOR • Are visible when Earth encounters group of meteors
moving together.

SHOWERS • Are produced when Earth passes through a trajectory

of comet debris.
• Are thought to be the interaction between planet and
streams of debris ejected from the comet along its
orbit.

• Halley’s comet has been identified with meteor

shower, known as Eta Aquarid, which can be sighted
every year in early May.
• Some meteor showers are seen in the midmonth of
August, when Earth crosses the path of comets.
Impacts of • Shoemaker-Levy 9- broke apart and smashed a portion of Jupiter,
which was observed in 1994.

meteors, 1. A 10-km asteroid hit the Yucatan Peninsula, 65 million years ago,
causing a global warming that extinguishes the dinosaurs.
asteroids, 2. A 1.2 km Barringer meteorite crater was caused by an iron

and
meteorite in Arizona, 50,000 years ago
3. An asteroid broke overhead in China that caused about 10, 000

comets 4.
deaths in 1940
An estimated 50-meters-across asteroid exploded above the
Tunguska, Siberia that caused the death of thousands of reindeer
and blowing down of trees across 2,000 sq. km in 1908
5. The asteroid Hermes measuring about a kilometer in diameter
caused epic devastation, killing millions in 1937.
Based on calculations
and research, they are
expecting massive •2000 EM26-
asteroids in 2040 and
another asteroid may
hit the planet Earth in a huge asteroid with an
the year 2880.
estimated size of three football
fields was reported to have
been seen last February 2014
 Beliefs • Comets are generally seen as bad luck for many
cultures around the world.

pertaining to
the
appearance
of comets,
asteroids and
meteors