Comets are known for their tails, and the name comes from the ancient Greek for ‘long-haired’. The largest ones are a bright presence in the night sky for a month or so as they make their closest approach to the Sun. They are icy bodies – dirty snowballs of water ice mixed with rock, dust and frozen gases like carbon dioxide. The tail appears when the comet approaches the Sun and the surface layers turn to
HOW ARE COMETS CLASSIFIED?
May 18, 2023
3 minutes
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