SOLAR SYSTEM

Detailed explanation-1: -When a comet’s orbit brings it close to the Sun, it heats up and spews dust and gases into a giant glowing head larger than most planets. The dust and gases form a tail that stretches away from the Sun for millions of miles.

Detailed explanation-2: -When far from the sun, a comet is like a stone rolling around the universe. But when it approaches the sun, the heat evaporates the comet’s gases, causing it to emit dust and microparticles (electrons and ions). These materials form a tail whose flow is affected by the sun’s radiation pressure.

Detailed explanation-3: -As the comet gets closer to the Sun, the coma grows. The solar winds push the dust and gas away from the coma causing them to stream off into space to form the comet’s tail. The solar winds cause the comet’s tail to point away from the Sun.

Detailed explanation-4: -The nucleus contains icy chunks, frozen gases with bits of embedded dust. A comet warms up as it nears the Sun and develops an atmosphere, or coma. The Sun’s heat causes the comet’s ices to change to gases so the coma gets larger. The coma may extend hundreds of thousands of kilometers.

Detailed explanation-5: -When comets approach the Sun, some of their ices melt. This causes another notable difference between asteroids and comets: comets have “tails” while asteroids generally don’t.