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.
By 1900 comets were categorized as "periodic", with elliptical orbits, or "non-periodic", one-time with parabolic or hyperbolic orbits. Astronomers believed that planets captured non-periodic comets into elliptical orbits; each planet had a "family" of comets that it captured, with Jupiter's the largest.
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 ...
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.
2011 – Dawn spacecraft enters orbit around the large asteroid Vesta making detailed measurements. [240] 2012 – Saturn's moon Methone is imaged up close by the Cassini spacecraft, revealing a remarkably smooth surface. [241] 2012 – Dawn spacecraft breaks orbit of Vesta and heads for Ceres. [240]
NASA said Tuesday researchers had observed a record-breaking comet speeding toward the middle of the universe. The space agency said it’s the biggest comet nucleus ever recorded with an ...
These comets come from the Kuiper belt and scattered disk, beyond the orbit of Pluto, with possible origins in the Oort cloud for many. For comets with an orbital period of over 1000 years (semi-major axis greater than ~100 AU), see the List of near-parabolic comets.
At that time, it was an 18th-magnitude object, located 2 AU (300 million km; 190 million mi) away from the Sun and 1.7 AU (250 million km; 160 million mi) away from Earth. [5] NEOWISE is known for being the brightest comet in the northern hemisphere since Comet Hale–Bopp in 1997. [6]