SOLAR SYSTEM

Detailed explanation-1: -The comets seen in the inner Solar system are believed to have been “knocked” out of their original orbit in the Kuiper Belt or Oort Cloud. Comets are sometimes called dirty snowballs or “icy mudballs".

Detailed explanation-2: -Comets are pristine remnants from the formation of the solar system that are comprised of minerals, rock and mostly ice, much like a dirty snowball.

Detailed explanation-3: -Oort Cloud News Asteroids, comets, Kuiper Belt Objects-all kinds of small bodies of rock, metal and ice are in constant motion as they orbit the Sun.

Detailed explanation-4: -What is a comet? Comets are collections of rocky material and ices, sometimes referred to as “dirty snowballs”. One of their key features is their large abundance of so-called “volatile” compounds, things like carbon dioxide, water and noble gases that sublimate (change from solid to gas) very easily.

Detailed explanation-5: -Comets are frequently called “dirty snowballs” because they consist of mostly water ice, peppered with rocky debris and frozen gases.

Detailed explanation-6: -Other comets modeled to have come directly from the outer Oort cloud include C/2006 P1 (McNaught), C/2010 X1 (Elenin), Comet ISON, C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring), C/2017 K2, and C/2017 T2 (PANSTARRS). The orbits within the Kuiper belt are relatively stable, and so very few comets are thought to originate there.