SOLAR SYSTEM

Detailed explanation-1: -Comets are cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock, and dust that orbit the Sun.

Detailed explanation-2: -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-3: -Planets are usually more or less spherical in shape, usually bulging slightly at the equator. Comets are irregular in shape, with their longest dimension often twice the shortest.

Detailed explanation-4: -Comets have been called “dirty snowballs.” They are small celestial objects, made of ice, gas, dust, and a small amount of organic material, that orbit our Sun. There are about 1000 known comets and more are discovered each year.

Detailed explanation-5: -Comets are sorted into four categories: periodic comets (e.g. Halley’s Comet), non-periodic comets (e.g. Comet Hale–Bopp), comets with no meaningful orbit (the Great Comet of 1106), and lost comets (5D/Brorsen), displayed as either P (periodic), C (non-periodic), X (no orbit), and D (lost).