Comets - NASA Science
Comets are frozen leftovers from the formation of the solar system composed of dust, rock, and ices. They range from a few miles to tens of miles wide, but as they orbit closer to the Sun, they heat up and spew gases and dust into a glowing head that can be larger than a planet.
Asteroids, Comets & Meteors - NASA Science
Explore the 3D world of asteroids, comets, and NEOs. Learn about past and future missions, tracking and predicting orbits, and close approaches to Earth. Activities that can be done at home as well as videos, animations, stories, and articles. Facts and activities for K-4 explorers.
Comets: Facts - NASA Science
Comets are generally named for their discoverer—either a person or a spacecraft. This International Astronomical Union guideline was developed only in the last century. For example, comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was so named because it was the ninth short-periodic comet discovered by Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy.
What Is a Comet? | NASA Space Place – NASA Science for Kids
2024年11月8日 · Comets are large objects made of dust and ice that orbit the Sun. Best known for their long, streaming tails, these ancient objects are leftovers from the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago.
NASA’s Webb to Unlock the Mysteries of Comets and the Early …
2019年9月25日 · Shortly after its launch in 2021, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will observe three different types of comets in infrared light, which is invisible to human eyes. By learning more about comets, scientists can gain new insights into what the solar system was like billions of years ago.
NASA’s Webb Finds Water, and a New Mystery, in Rare Main Belt Comet
2023年5月15日 · Using Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument, astronomers have confirmed gas – specifically water vapor – around a comet in the main asteroid belt for the first time, indicating that water ice from the primordial solar system can be …
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Arrives from Afar - NASA Earth …
2024年10月11日 · Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, which likely traveled from the outer reaches of our solar system, ... who leads the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The Sun influences the two types of tails in different ways, often sending them in different directions. The heat and pressure of sunlight push particles in ...
Asteroids, Comets & Meteors - NASA Solar System Exploration
Our solar system’s small bodies – asteroids, comets, and meteors – pack big surprises. These chunks of rock, ice, and metal are leftovers from the formation of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago.
Asteroids and Comets | NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
2024年10月2日 · As primitive solar system objects, comets and asteroids help us unlock the history that led to the formation of the planets and eventually, life on Earth. To study them, NASA and other space agencies have flown past some of these small bodies, deliberately crashed into one comet, and brought dust samples from another one back to Earth for study ...
4,000th Comet Discovered by ESA & NASA Solar Observatory
On June 15, 2020, a citizen scientist spotted a never-before-seen comet in data from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO — the 4,000th comet discovery in the spacecraft’s 25-year history. The comet is nicknamed SOHO-4000, …