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2007-08-19 11:04:03 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics Astronomy & Space

Also, where do comets originally get their energy from constantly travelling aroudn the sun and into the outer solar system and back again?

2007-08-19 11:25:42 · update #1

8 answers

And the energy the comets have is from when the solar system first formed. Everything was spinning and swirling around the gravitational center that became the sun. Some debris became the planets. Farther out the comets formed. They stay there because of that primordial momentum. Every now and then they can loose some momentum through collisions with other objects out there. And when it slows down it begins to fall "downwards" towards the sun. As it does so it picks up momentum and constantly gains speed. When it is the closest to the sun (and shining bright because of the sunlight) it is moving so fast that the sun can´t hold on to it. And the comets swings around and begins to fall "upwards" away from the sun. So the comet is now constantly losing speed and eventually, when it is about at Neptune's orbit, it has lost so much momentum that it again begins to fall downwards. Every time the comet is near the sun the solar wind blasts it and knocks gas and dust off it. So the comet loses both mass and momentum but unless the comet impacts something, like a planet, it can swing around the sun in its highly elliptical orbit for many millennia.

2007-08-19 11:59:04 · answer #1 · answered by DrAnders_pHd 6 · 3 0

Comets don't actually burn. The ices that form on comets sublimates (goes from solid to gas) as the comet nears the warmth of the sun. The solar wind then blows the evaporated gases away from the comet. This results in a tail. Sunlight reflects off of these gases, that is why they are visible.

2007-08-19 11:20:16 · answer #2 · answered by ngc7331 6 · 3 0

They aren't burning - they aren't on fire.

As they get close to the sun, the ices they are made up of start to evaporate in the heat, and as the gas and dust is blown off the comet by the solar wind, the electrically charged particles in the solar wind cause the gases in the comet's tail to glow (similar to neon lights).

2007-08-19 11:08:46 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 4 0

Tp Zahbudar: Comets don't travel through the earth's atmosphere. You must be thinking of meteors, not comets.

2007-08-19 13:03:41 · answer #4 · answered by Renaissance Man 5 · 0 0

They don't burn. As they get close to the sun they basically melt. The gas and dust ejected from the comet shine in the sunlight.

2007-08-19 11:08:28 · answer #5 · answered by Choose a bloody best answer. It's not hard. 7 · 4 0

Comets are not on fire. They are made out of ice and rock, and they reflect sunlight - more than some planets since they are made out of (very reflective) ice.

2007-08-19 11:10:36 · answer #6 · answered by eri 7 · 1 0

They are not burning. As they get closer to the sun, the heat releases gases and particles and that is what is shining in the sun.

2007-08-19 11:07:47 · answer #7 · answered by bravozulu 7 · 4 0

Because the comets are having the particles they are made of furiously heated up to thousands and thousands of degrees as they rip through our upper atmosphere at some 50,000 miles per hour.

2007-08-19 11:15:13 · answer #8 · answered by zahbudar 6 · 0 3

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