We all know Comets are cool .. they are from the Oort cloud which is leftovers of when our solar system was formed . What do you think of Comets .. do you see them as ..
Just dirty ice balls ?
or
Bullets of doom ?
or
Building blocks ?
Give a reason , it makes it an interesting
debate as well !
2006-08-23 07:51:27 · 5 answers · asked by spaceprt 5 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Hi. All three. They are usually dust and water ice, they can be more like bombs of doom (ask a dinosaur), they may have supplied most water to the earth. I think a bigger question may be whether they ALL come from the Oort cloud, or does the cloud actually extend into interstellar space. Could the early comets have had amino acids? Life from spores or dormant living things? Represent panspermia?
2006-08-23 08:35:17 · answer #1 · answered by Cirric 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Just a note to Neo, previous respondant, and anyone else who does not understand the power behind the kinetic energy of cosmic bodies.
Recall that the Shuttle burned up when it lost a tiny fraction of its heat shield. That was just hitting the thinnest regions of the upper atmosphere - air many times thinner than our air down here.
A comet is travelling many times faster than the shuttle, and perhaps 10 to 50 times faster than a bullet. Most comets would be billions of tonnes in mass, and even if that was just a billion tonnes of dust, the effect on hitting the atmosphere at 20+ kms/sec would be devastating.
A block of ice just as big as a football stadium impacting at that speed will rival any of our nuclear bombs in blast energy.
A comet the size of a small American State - well, I'll leave you to figure that one.
2006-08-23 16:31:59 · answer #2 · answered by nick s 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Comets are beautiful to witness when able to view in the sky at a safe distance. Haley's Comet was cool. As far as I know comets remain in orbit. If they are a building block maybe they are "picking up" the ingredients in it's orbit before becoming a planet able to support life. Something major would have to disturb a comet from it's orbit in order to cause any destruction to other satellites & so forth.
2006-08-23 15:01:17 · answer #3 · answered by curiousgeorge 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Comets are very dangerous because of their speed of 100,000 mpr.++ some at 200,000 mph.The meteors or shooting stars are traveling much slower even though they are huge. The kinetic energy is velocity squared times the mass.
2006-08-23 15:43:05 · answer #4 · answered by JOHNNIE B 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Just blocks of ice because they would Evaporate before they hit the ground.
2006-08-23 15:27:05 · answer #5 · answered by Sniper 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋