SOLAR SYSTEM

Detailed explanation-1: -Comets are cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock, and dust that orbit the Sun. When frozen, they are the size of a small town. 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.

Detailed explanation-2: -The coma of a comet is made largely of water and dust. When a comet approaches the Sun, it warms up. Heat from the Sun changes the comet’s icy materials to gases. The comet releases these gases, forming the coma.

Detailed explanation-3: -Sunlight and solar wind sweep the dust and gas of the coma into trailing tails. Because sunlight and solar wind always flow outward from our Sun’s surface, the tails always point away from our Sun no matter what direction the comet is moving in its orbit.

Detailed explanation-4: -A Comet Has Two Types of Tail The plasma tail comprises electrons and ions that are ionized by the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. The dust tail consists of micrometer-scale particles. The dust tail is wide and slightly bent because of the pressure of the light from the sun and the orbital action of the comet’s nucleus.

Detailed explanation-5: -Scientists sometimes call comets dirty snowballs or snowy dirtballs, depending on whether they contain more ice material or rocky debris according to NASA. Related: How to view and photograph comets.

Detailed explanation-6: -Some of this ice turns into a gas. The gas (plus dust and some water) forms a cloud around the nucleus, called a coma. You can think of the coma as the comet’s atmosphere. The coma can be as large as a planet!