Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Comets whose aphelia are near a major planet's orbit are called its "family". [81] Such families are thought to arise from the planet capturing formerly long-period comets into shorter orbits. [82] At the shorter orbital period extreme, Encke's Comet has an orbit that does not reach the orbit of Jupiter, and is known as an Encke-type comet.
This unique spiral galaxy, which is situated 3.2 billion light-years from the Earth, has an extended stream of bright blue knots and diffuse wisps of young stars. [2] It rushes at 3.6 million km/h (1000km/s [2]) through the cluster Abell 2667 and therefore, like a comet, shows a tail, with a length of 600,000 light-years.
Thus, the Sun occupies 0.00001% (1 part in 10 7) of the volume of a sphere with a radius the size of Earth's orbit, whereas Earth's volume is roughly 1 millionth (10 −6) that of the Sun. Jupiter, the largest planet, is 5.2 AU from the Sun and has a radius of 71,000 km (0.00047 AU; 44,000 mi), whereas the most distant planet, Neptune, is 30 AU ...
According to NASA, comets are frozen leftovers from the formation of the solar system. ... Their tails are formed when their orbit brings the comet close enough to the sun to start heating up. The ...
All comets are frozen remnants of dust, rock and ice from the solar system's origin, according to NASA. As they approach the sun, they heat up and release gas and dust, appearing like a glowing orb.
Periodic comets usually have elongated elliptical orbits, and usually return to the vicinity of the Sun after a number of decades. The official names of non-periodic comets begin with a "C"; the names of periodic comets begin with "P" or a number followed by "P". Comets that have been lost or disappeared have names with a "D". Comets whose ...
The comet named C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan–ATLAS is making an 80,000-year orbit around the sun this week, according to NASA.
If Halley was once a long-period comet, it is likely to have originated in the Oort cloud, [49] a sphere of cometary bodies around 20,000–50,000 au from the Sun. Conversely the Jupiter-family comets are generally believed to originate in the Kuiper belt, [49] a flat disc of icy debris between 30 au (Neptune's orbit) and 50 au from the Sun (in ...