When it is far from the Sun, a comet is a dirty snowball.It changes appearance as it moves closer to the Sun.?

Question

When it is far from the Sun, a comet is a dirty snowball.It changes appearance as it moves closer to the Sun. Why???

Answer 1

They get that nickname (dirty snowball) because they are mostly composed of dust grains, chunks of dirt, and ice. The ice is not just frozen water, but also frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice), frozen ammonia, and frozen methane (in its gaseous form, we call methane “natural gas”).
Comets orbit the sun in very elliptical orbits that typically take them very close to the sun and send them far from the sun. When they are far from the sun, comets are not detectable except by the most advanced telescopic devices. However, when their elliptical orbit takes them close to the sun, the “dirty snowball” heats up. This causes the ice on the surface of the comet to turn directly into gas, forming a fuzzy atmosphere around it. When a solid turns from solid to gas, we say it has sublimed. At this point, the chunk of dust, dirt, and ice that makes up the solid part of the comet is called the nucleus of the comet, and the “fuzzy” atmosphere around the comet is called the coma.
Because gases in the coma are heated by the comet’s proximity to the sun, they begin to emit light, causing them to “glow”. The gases from the coma usually form a long, glowing tail. The large amount of insolation the comet receives at that proximity to the sun is what makes the coma and causes it to glow.
Note also that a comet’s tail usually points away from the sun. This is typical of most comets. You see, there are certain gases that are constantly being emitted from the surface of the sun. The gases are pushed away from the sun, causing a “wind”, which physicists call solar wind. This wind blows the gases of the coma away from the nucleus of the comet, giving the comet it’s tail.

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Answer 2

As a comet gets closer to the sun it begins to heat up. Some of that "snow" (ice and other chemicals such as methane, etc) melt, then vaporize (turn to gases).

A comet has almost no gravit--so the solar wind blows these gasesaway from the comet. The comet's "tail" consists of this vaporized material--and the spectacular show that results is caused by sunlight reflecting off the gasses as tehy are blown away from the comet by the solar wind.

Answer 3

The energy the comet receives from the Sun, in the form of light increases as it approaches the Sun. The closer it comes to the Sun, the more energy it receives. This increase in energy, heats the surface of the comet. Materials become gaseous and are observed as the tail of the comet.

Answer 4

The dirty snowball scenario of a comet has been discounted since probes were sent to analyse comets.

Yes, they contain ices, but the "dirt" is more substantial than first thought, and in some larger comets, the solid material is more like clusters of asteroids.

Answer 5

somewhat closer. it would additionally revolve around the sunlight somewhat quicker; products with decrease orbits revolve extra immediately than products with greater orbits. undergo in recommendations, although, that one comet is going to do just about no longer something to the mass of the sunlight. in certainty, the quantity of power the sunlight releases daily, converted to count by way of Einstein's equation, is extra beneficial than the mass of maximum comets! So in certainty, the Earth is probable slowly shifting removed from the sunlight because of the fact the sunlight burns off its hydrogen.

Answer 6

Because as it gets nearer the sun solar radiation blasts bits off which show up as a "tail". Also the sun's light shining on it makes it show up.

Answer 7

gases start to evaporate