Could humans make a Comet in space and send it on a calculated orbit around the Sun to see it's light trail?

Question

As comets are just "dirty snow balls." Would it be possible for humans to make one and send it on a calculated orbit around the Sun so one could observe a light trail from earth. Do they have to be of a certain size to sustain a trail of light before they vapourise or before they can be called "comets" ?

Answer 1

I suppose there could be small comets, like 10 kilograms or whatever, but if there were, their tails would be so small and thin that we could not see them from Earth. All comets we can see from Earth are at least hundreds of meters across, with millions of kilograms of mass. We do not have the power to significantly change the course of such large masses in space.

Answer 2

I'm sure sometime in the future we will have the ability to do that, but we don't right now.

Comets do eventually "evaporate" - they don't last forever. So they probably do have to be a certain size, but I don't know what that is. Comets can be just about any size (Pluto's basically an over-grown comet) but usually they are about 10 miles or so across, I believe.

Answer 3

guy: if the earth is traveling sixty seven,000mph around the solar, and the value of sound on the floor of earth is approximately 770mph, then the equivalent speed of the earth could be mach 87 around the solar. there is not any bullet that gets almost that close. severe speed rifle bullets return and forth only at a pair cases the value of sound.

Answer 4

I don't understand what would be the scientific interest of such a mission or experiment.
There are already enough natural comets.

Answer 5

Good idea. We could use all the snow and ice at antarctica (before it all melts). That would also prevent the sea level rising due to global warming.