UNIVERSE
METEORITES
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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True
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False-Comets are dark and virtually invisible most of their orbit.
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Either A or B
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None of the above
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Detailed explanation-1: -A comet does not give off any light of its own. What seems to be light from the comet is actually a reflection of our Sun’s light. Sunlight bounces off the comet’s ice particles in the same way light is reflected by a mirror. A few comets come close enough to the Earth for us to see them with our eyes.
Detailed explanation-2: -Most comets travel in highly elliptical orbits around the Sun with orbital periods (time between returns) ranging from just over three years to millions of years. Some comets, called “periodic comets", return near the Sun every few years, and travel no further from the Sun than the orbit of Jupiter.
Detailed explanation-3: -Comets go around the Sun in a highly elliptical orbit. They can spend hundreds and thousands of years out in the depths of the solar system before they return to Sun at their perihelion. Like all orbiting bodies, comets follow Kepler’s Laws-the closer they are to the Sun, the faster they move.
Detailed explanation-4: -We only see a comet for a short time because they move fast when they are close to the Sun but very slowly in the outer parts of their orbit, see Kepler’s second law.