Comets

This article is about the astronomical objects. For other uses, see Comet (disambiguation).

Comet Holmes (17P/Holmes) in 2007, showing blue ion tail on right

A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, heats up and begins to outgas,
displaying a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are due to the eects of solar
radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet. Comet nuclei range from a few hundred metres to tens
of kilometres across and are composed of loose collections of ice, dust, and small rocky particles. The coma and tail
are much larger and, if suciently bright, may be seen from the Earth without the aid of a telescope. Comets have
been observed and recorded since ancient times by many dierent cultures.
Comets have a wide range of orbital periods, ranging from several years to several millions of years. Short-period
comets originate in the Kuiper belt or its associated scattered disc, which lie beyond the orbit of Neptune. Longerperiod comets are thought to originate in the Oort cloud, a spherical cloud of icy bodies extending from outside the
Kuiper Belt to halfway to the next nearest star. Long-period comets are directed towards the Sun from the Oort cloud
by gravitational perturbations caused by passing stars and the galactic tide. Hyperbolic comets may pass once through
the inner Solar System before being ung out to interstellar space along hyperbolic trajectories.
Comets are distinguished from asteroids by the presence of an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere surrounding their central nucleus. This atmosphere has parts termed the coma (the central atmosphere immediately
surrounding the nucleus) and the tail (a typically linear section consisting of dust or gas blown out from the coma
by the Suns light pressure or outstreaming solar wind plasma). However, extinct comets that have passed close to
the Sun many times have lost nearly all of their volatile ices and dust and may come to resemble small asteroids.[1]
Asteroids are thought to have a dierent origin from comets, having formed inside the orbit of Jupiter rather than
in the outer Solar System.[2][3] The discovery of main-belt comets and active centaurs has blurred the distinction
between asteroids and comets.
As of November 2014 there are 5,253 known comets,[4] a number which is steadily increasing. However, this represents only a tiny fraction of the total potential comet population, as the reservoir of comet-like bodies in the outer
Solar System (in the Oort cloud) may be much greater. Roughly one comet per year is visible to the naked eye, though
many of these are faint and unspectacular.[5] Particularly bright examples are called "Great Comets".
On 12 November 2014, the European Space Agencys Rosetta mission became the rst ever to land a robotic spacecraft on a comet, when the probe Philae landed on comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko.[6]

Etymology

The word comet derives from the Old English cometa from the Latin comta or comts. That, in turn, is a latinisation
of the Greek (wearing long hair), and the Oxford English Dictionary notes that the term ()
already meant long-haired star, comet in Greek. was derived from (to wear the hair long), which
was itself derived from (the hair of the head) and was used to mean the tail of a comet.[7][8]
1

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

9P/Tempel collides with Deep Impacts impactor

The astronomical symbol for comets is (), consisting of a small disc with three hairlike extensions.[9]

2
2.1

Physical characteristics
Nucleus

Main article: Comet nucleus

2.1

Nucleus

Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3) from orbit

Nucleus of Comet 103P/Hartley as imaged during a spacecraft yby. The nucleus is about 2 km in length.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko. High quality picture taken by ESAs Rosetta spacecraft as it orbits the comet.

C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) heads towards the Sun

The solid, core structure of a comet is known as the nucleus. Cometary nuclei are composed of an amalgamation
of rock, dust, water ice, and frozen gases such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and ammonia.[10] As
such, they are popularly described as dirty snowballs after Fred Whipple's model.[11] However, some comets may
have a higher dust content, leading them to be called icy dirtballs.[12]
The surface of the nucleus is generally dry, dusty or rocky, suggesting that the ices are hidden beneath a surface
crust several metres thick. In addition to the gases already mentioned, the nuclei contain a variety of organic compounds, which may include methanol, hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde, ethanol, and ethane and perhaps more complex molecules such as long-chain hydrocarbons and amino acids.[13][14] In 2009, it was conrmed that the amino acid
glycine had been found in the comet dust recovered by NASAs Stardust mission.[15] In August 2011, a report, based
on NASA studies of meteorites found on Earth, was published suggesting DNA and RNA components (adenine,
guanine, and related organic molecules) may have been formed on asteroids and comets.[16][17]
The outer surfaces of cometary nuclei have a very low albedo, making them among the least reective objects found in
the Solar System. The Giotto space probe found that the nucleus of Halleys Comet reects about four percent of the

2.1

Nucleus

Comet 81P/Wild (Wild 2)

light that falls on it,[18] and Deep Space 1 discovered that Comet Borrellys surface reects less than 3.0% of the light
that falls on it;[18] by comparison, asphalt reects seven percent of the light that falls on it. The dark surface material of
the nucleus may consist of complex organic compounds. Solar heating drives o lighter volatile compounds, leaving
behind larger organic compounds that tend to be very dark, like tar or crude oil. The low reectivity of cometary
surfaces enables them to absorb the heat necessary to drive their outgassing processes.[19]
Comet nuclei with radii of up to 30 kilometres (19 mi) have been observed,[26] but ascertaining their exact size is
dicult.[27] The nucleus of P/2007 R5 is probably only 100200 metres in diameter.[28] A lack of smaller comets
being detected despite the increased sensitivity of instruments has led some to suggest that there is a real lack of
comets smaller than 100 metres (330 ft) across.[29] Known comets have been estimated to have an average density of
0.6 g/cm3 .[24] Because of their low mass, comet nuclei do not become spherical under their own gravity and therefore
have irregular shapes.[30]
Roughly six percent of the near-Earth asteroids are thought to be extinct nuclei of comets that no longer experience
outgassing,[31] including 14827 Hypnos and 3552 Don Quixote.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Comet Borrelly exhibits jets, but has no surface ice.

Comet Wild 2 exhibits jets on light side and dark side, stark relief, and is dry.

2.2

Coma

Main article: Coma (cometary)

The streams of dust and gas thus released form a huge and extremely thin atmosphere around the comet called the
coma, and the force exerted on the coma by the Suns radiation pressure and solar wind cause an enormous tail
to form pointing away from the Sun.[33]
The coma is generally made of H2 O and dust, with water making up to 90% of the volatiles that outow from
the nucleus when the comet is within 3 to 4 astronomical units (450,000,000 to 600,000,000 km; 280,000,000 to
370,000,000 mi) of the Sun.[34] The H2 O parent molecule is destroyed primarily through photodissociation and to a

2.2

Coma

Hubble image of Comet ISON shortly before perihelion.[32]

much smaller extent photoionization, with the solar wind playing a minor role in the destruction of water compared to
photochemistry.[34] Larger dust particles are left along the comets orbital path whereas smaller particles are pushed
away from the Sun into the comets tail by light pressure.[35]
Although the solid nucleus of comets is generally less than 60 kilometres (37 mi) across, the coma may be thousands
or millions of kilometres across, sometimes becoming larger than the Sun.[36] For example, about a month after an
outburst in October 2007, comet 17P/Holmes briey had a tenuous dust atmosphere larger than the Sun.[37] The Great
Comet of 1811 also had a coma roughly the diameter of the Sun.[38] Even though the coma can become quite large,
its size can actually decrease about the time it crosses the orbit of Mars around 1.5 astronomical units (220,000,000
km; 140,000,000 mi) from the Sun.[38] At this distance the solar wind becomes strong enough to blow the gas and
dust away from the coma, enlarging the tail.[38] Ion tails have been observed to extend one astronomical unit (150
million km) or more.[37]
Both the coma and tail are illuminated by the Sun and may become visible when a comet passes through the inner
Solar System, the dust reecting sunlight directly and the gases glowing from ionisation.[39] Most comets are too faint
to be visible without the aid of a telescope, but a few each decade become bright enough to be visible to the naked
eye.[40] Occasionally a comet may experience a huge and sudden outburst of gas and dust, during which the size of
the coma greatly increases for a period of time. This happened in 2007 to Comet Holmes.[37]
In 1996, comets were found to emit X-rays.[41] This greatly surprised astronomers because X-ray emission is usually

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Comet Siding Spring to pass near Mars on 19 October 2014 (Hubble; 11 March 2014).

associated with very high-temperature bodies. The X-rays are generated by the interaction between comets and the
solar wind: when highly charged solar wind ions y through a cometary atmosphere, they collide with cometary atoms
and molecules, stealing one or more electrons from the atom in a process called charge exchange. This exchange
or transfer of an electron to the solar wind ion is followed by its de-excitation into the ground state of the ion, leading
to the emission of X-rays and far ultraviolet photons.[42]

2.3

Tails

Main article: Comet tail

In the outer Solar System, comets remain frozen and inactive and are extremely dicult or impossible to detect from
Earth due to their small size. Statistical detections of inactive comet nuclei in the Kuiper belt have been reported
from observations by the Hubble Space Telescope[43][44] but these detections have been questioned.[45][46] As a comet
approaches the inner Solar System, solar radiation causes the volatile materials within the comet to vaporize and
stream out of the nucleus, carrying dust away with them.
The streams of dust and gas each form their own distinct tail, pointing in slightly dierent directions. The tail of dust
is left behind in the comets orbit in such a manner that it often forms a curved tail called the type II or dust tail.[39] At
the same time, the ion or type I tail, made of gases, always points directly away from the Sun because this gas is more
strongly aected by the solar wind than is dust, following magnetic eld lines rather than an orbital trajectory.[47] On
occasions - such as when the Earth passes through a comets orbital plane, and we see the track of the comet edge-on,
a tail pointing in the opposite direction to the ion and dust tails may be seen the antitail.[48] (The dust tail of the
comet prior to its rounding of the sun, is collinear with the dust tail post the rounding of the sun).
The observation of antitails contributed signicantly to the discovery of solar wind.[49] The ion tail is formed as a
result of the ionisation by solar ultra-violet radiation of particles in the coma. Once the particles have been ionized,
they attain a net positive electrical charge, which in turn gives rise to an induced magnetosphere" around the comet.
The comet and its induced magnetic eld form an obstacle to outward owing solar wind particles. Because the
relative orbital speed of the comet and the solar wind is supersonic, a bow shock is formed upstream of the comet in
the ow direction of the solar wind. In this bow shock, large concentrations of cometary ions (called pick-up ions)
congregate and act to load the solar magnetic eld with plasma, such that the eld lines drape around the comet
forming the ion tail.[50]
If the ion tail loading is sucient, then the magnetic eld lines are squeezed together to the point where, at some
distance along the ion tail, magnetic reconnection occurs. This leads to a tail disconnection event.[50] This has been
observed on a number of occasions, one notable event being recorded on April 20, 2007, when the ion tail of Enckes
Comet was completely severed while the comet passed through a coronal mass ejection. This event was observed by
the STEREO space probe.[51]

2.4

Jets

Diagram of a comet showing the dust trail, the dust tail (or antitail) and the ion gas tail, which is formed by the solar wind ow.

In 2013 ESA scientists reported that the ionosphere of the planet Venus streams outwards in a manner similar to the
ion tail seen streaming from a comet under similar conditions.[52][53]

10

ORBITAL CHARACTERISTICS

Enckes Comet loses its tail

2.4

Jets

Uneven heating can cause newly generated gases to break out of a weak spot on the surface of comets nucleus, like a
geyser.[54] These streams of gas and dust can cause the nucleus to spin, and even split apart.[54] In 2010 it was revealed
dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) can power jets of material owing out of a comet nucleus.[55] This is known because
a spacecraft got so close that it could see where the jets were coming out, and then measure the infrared spectrum at
that point which shows what some of the materials are.[56]

Orbital characteristics

Most comets are small Solar System bodies with elongated elliptical orbits that take them close to the Sun for a part of
their orbit and then out into the further reaches of the Solar System for the remainder.[57] Comets are often classied
according to the length of their orbital periods: The longer the period the more elongated the ellipse.

3.1

Short period

Periodic comets or short-period comets are generally dened as having orbital periods of less than 200 years.[58] They
usually orbit more-or-less in the ecliptic plane in the same direction as the planets.[59] Their orbits typically take them
out to the region of the outer planets (Jupiter and beyond) at aphelion; for example, the aphelion of Halleys Comet is
a little beyond the orbit of Neptune. Comets whose aphelia are near a major planets orbit are called its family.[60]
Such families are thought to arise from the planet capturing formerly long-period comets into shorter orbits.[61]
At the shorter extreme, Enckes Comet has an orbit that does not reach the orbit of Jupiter, and is known as an Encketype comet. Short-period comets with orbital periods shorter than 20 years and low inclinations (up to 30 degrees)
are called Jupiter-family comets.[62][63] Those like Halley, with orbital periods of between 20 and 200 years and
inclinations extending from zero to more than 90 degrees, are called Halley-type comets.[64][65] As of 2014, only
74 Halley-type comets have been observed, compared with 492 identied Jupiter-family comets.[66]
Recently discovered main-belt comets form a distinct class, orbiting in more circular orbits within the asteroid belt.[67]
Because their elliptical orbits frequently take them close to the giant planets, comets are subject to further gravitational
perturbations.[68] Short-period comets display a tendency for their aphelia to coincide with a gas giant's orbital radius,
with the Jupiter family of comets being the largest.[63] It is clear that comets coming in from the Oort cloud often have
their orbits strongly inuenced by the gravity of giant planets as a result of a close encounter. Jupiter is the source of
the greatest perturbations, being more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined. These perturbations

3.2

Long period

11

Gas and snow jets on Comet Hartley 2

can deect long-period comets into shorter orbital periods.[69][70]

Based on their orbital characteristics, short-period comets are thought to originate from the centaurs and the Kuiper
belt/scattered disc[71] a disk of objects in the trans-Neptunian regionwhereas the source of long-period comets
is thought to be the far more distant spherical Oort cloud (after the Dutch astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort who hypothesised its existence).[72] Vast swarms of comet-like bodies are believed to orbit the Sun in these distant regions
in roughly circular orbits. Occasionally the gravitational inuence of the outer planets (in the case of Kuiper belt
objects) or nearby stars (in the case of Oort cloud objects) may throw one of these bodies into an elliptical orbit that
takes it inwards toward the Sun to form a visible comet. Unlike the return of periodic comets, whose orbits have
been established by previous observations, the appearance of new comets by this mechanism is unpredictable.[73]

3.2

Long period

Long-period comets have highly eccentric orbits and periods ranging from 200 years to thousands of years.[75] An
eccentricity greater than 1 when near perihelion does not necessarily mean that a comet will leave the Solar System.[76]

12

ORBITAL CHARACTERISTICS

1973-10-01
11-01

02-01

1974-01-01

11

21

27

12-01
03-01
1974-04-01

11
21

1974-01-01

21

11
21

11
02-01

12-01

04-01

03-01
1973-11-01

1973-10-01
Orbits of the Kohoutek Comet (red) and the Earth (blue), illustrating the high eccentricity of its orbit and its rapid motion when close
to the Sun.

For example, Comet McNaught had a heliocentric osculating eccentricity of 1.000019 near its perihelion passage
epoch in January 2007 but is bound to the Sun with roughly a 92,600-year orbit because the eccentricity drops below
1 as it moves further from the Sun. The future orbit of a long-period comet is properly obtained when the osculating
orbit is computed at an epoch after leaving the planetary region and is calculated with respect to the center of mass
of the Solar System. By denition long-period comets remain gravitationally bound to the Sun; those comets that
are ejected from the Solar System due to close passes by major planets are no longer properly considered as having
periods. The orbits of long-period comets take them far beyond the outer planets at aphelia, and the plane of their
orbits need not lie near the ecliptic. Long-period comets such as Comet West and C/1999 F1 can have apoapsis
distances of nearly 70,000 AU with orbital periods estimated around 6 million years.
Single-apparition or non-periodic comets are similar to long-period comets because they also have parabolic or slightly
hyperbolic trajectories[75] when near perihelion in the inner Solar System. However, gravitational perturbations from
giant planets cause their orbits to change. Single-apparition comets have a hyperbolic or parabolic osculating orbit
which allows them to permanently exit the Solar System after a single pass of the Sun.[77] The Suns Hill sphere has an
unstable maximum boundary of 230,000 AU (1.1 parsecs (3.6 light-years)).[78] Only a few hundred comets have been
seen to achieve a hyperbolic orbit (e > 1) when near perihelion[79] that using a heliocentric unperturbed two-body
best-t suggests they may escape the Solar System.
No comets with an eccentricity signicantly greater than one have been observed,[79] so there are no conrmed
observations of comets that are likely to have originated outside the Solar System. Comet C/1980 E1 had an orbital
period of roughly 7.1 million years before the 1982 perihelion passage, but a 1980 encounter with Jupiter accelerated
the comet giving it the largest eccentricity (1.057) of any known hyperbolic comet.[80] Comets not expected to return
to the inner Solar System include C/1980 E1, C/2000 U5, C/2001 Q4 (NEAT), C/2009 R1, C/1956 R1, and C/2007

3.3

Oort Cloud and Hills cloud

13

Comets C/2012 F6 (Lemmon) (top) and C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) (bottom)

F1 (LONEOS).
Some authorities use the term periodic comet to refer to any comet with a periodic orbit (that is, all short-period
comets plus all long-period comets),[81] whereas others use it to mean exclusively short-period comets.[75] Similarly,
although the literal meaning of non-periodic comet is the same as single-apparition comet, some use it to mean
all comets that are not periodic in the second sense (that is, to also include all comets with a period greater than
200 years).
Early observations have revealed a few genuinely hyperbolic (i.e. non-periodic) trajectories, but no more than could
be accounted for by perturbations from Jupiter. If comets pervaded interstellar space, they would be moving with
velocities of the same order as the relative velocities of stars near the Sun (a few tens of km per second). If such
objects entered the Solar System, they would have positive specic orbital energy and would be observed to have
genuinely hyperbolic trajectories. A rough calculation shows that there might be four hyperbolic comets per century
within Jupiters orbit, give or take one and perhaps two orders of magnitude.[82]

3.3

Oort Cloud and Hills cloud

Main article: Oort cloud

The Oort cloud is thought to occupy a vast space from somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000 AU (0.03 and 0.08
ly)[83] to as far as 50,000 AU (0.79 ly)[64] from the Sun. Some estimates place the outer edge at between 100,000 and
200,000 AU (1.58 and 3.16 ly).[83] The region can be subdivided into a spherical outer Oort cloud of 20,00050,000
AU (0.320.79 ly), and a doughnut-shaped inner Oort cloud of 2,00020,000 AU (0.030.32 ly). The outer cloud is
only weakly bound to the Sun and supplies the long-period (and possibly Halley-type) comets to inside the orbit of
Neptune.[64] The inner Oort cloud is also known as the Hills cloud, named after J. G. Hills, who proposed its existence
in 1981.[84] Models predict that the inner cloud should have tens or hundreds of times as many cometary nuclei as
the outer halo;[84][85][86] it is seen as a possible source of new comets to resupply the relatively tenuous outer cloud as

14

EFFECTS OF COMETS

Orbit of binary
Kuiper belt object
1998 WW31

Pluto's orbit

Kuiper Belt and outer

solar system planetary orbits

The Ort cloud

(comprising many
billions of comets)

The Oort cloud is a vast cloud of comets that is thought to surround the Solar System.

the latters numbers are gradually depleted. The Hills cloud explains the continued existence of the Oort cloud after
billions of years.[87]

3.4

Exocomets

Main article: Exocomet

Exocomets beyond our Solar System have also been detected and may be common in the Milky Way Galaxy.[88] The
rst exocomet system detected was around Beta Pictoris, a very young type A V star, in 1987.[89][90] A total of 10
such exocomet systems have been identied as of 2013, using the absorption spectrum caused by the large clouds of
gas emitted by comets when passing close to their star.[88][89]

4
4.1

Eects of comets
Connection to meteor showers

As a result of outgassing, comets leave in their wake a trail of solid debris too large to be swept away by radiation
pressure and the solar wind.[91] If the comets path crosses the path the Earth follows in orbit around the Sun, then
at that point there are likely to be meteor showers as Earth passes through the trail of debris. The Perseid meteor
shower, for example, occurs every year between August 9 and August 13, when Earth passes through the orbit of
Comet SwiftTuttle.[92] Halleys Comet is the source of the Orionid shower in October.[92]

4.2

Comets and impact on life

15

Diagram of Perseids meteors

4.2

Comets and impact on life

Many comets and asteroids collided into Earth in its early stages. Many scientists believe that comets bombarding the
young Earth about 4 billion years ago brought the vast quantities of water that now ll the Earths oceans, or at least
a signicant portion of it. Other researchers have cast doubt on this theory.[93] The detection of organic molecules in
signicant quantities in comets has led some to speculate that comets or meteorites may have brought the precursors
of lifeor even life itselfto Earth.[94] In 2013 it was suggested that impacts between rocky and icy surfaces, such
as comets, had the potential to create the amino acids that make up proteins through shock synthesis.[95]
It is suspected that comet impacts have, over long timescales, also delivered signicant quantities of water to the
Earths Moon, some of which may have survived as lunar ice.[96] Comet and meteoroid impacts are also believed
responsible for the existence of tektites and australites.[97]

5
5.1

Fate of comets
Departure (ejection) from Solar System

If a comet is traveling fast enough, it may leave the Solar System; such is the case for hyperbolic comets. To date,
comets are only known to be ejected by interacting with another object in the Solar System, such as Jupiter.[98]

16

5.2

FATE OF COMETS

Volatiles exhausted

Main article: Extinct comet

Jupiter-family comets and long-period comets appear to follow very dierent fading laws. The JFCs are active over
a lifetime of about 10,000 years or ~1,000 orbits whereas long-period comets fade much faster. Only 10% of the
long-period comets survive more than 50 passages to small perihelion and only 1% of them survive more than 2,000
passages.[31] Eventually most of the volatile material contained in a comet nucleus evaporates away, and the comet
becomes a small, dark, inert lump of rock or rubble that can resemble an asteroid.[99] Some asteroids in elliptical
orbits are now identied as extinct comets.[100] Roughly six percent of the near-Earth asteroids are thought to be
extinct nuclei of comets that no longer emit gas.[31]

5.3

Breakup

Breaking up of 73P/SchwassmannWachmann in 1995. This animation covers three days.

The nucleus of some comets may be fragile, a conclusion supported by the observation of comets splitting apart.[102]
A signicant cometary disruption was that of Comet ShoemakerLevy 9, which was discovered in 1993. A close encounter in July 1992 had broken it into pieces, and over a period of six days in July 1994, these pieces fell into Jupiters
atmospherethe rst time astronomers had observed a collision between two objects in the Solar System.[103][104]
Other splitting comets include 3D/Biela in 1846 and 73P/SchwassmannWachmann from 1995 to 2006.[105] Greek

5.3

Breakup

17

Disintegration of asteroid P/2013 R3 observed by the Hubble Space Telescope (6 March 2014).[101]

historian Ephorus reported that a comet split apart as far back as the winter of 372373 BC.[106] Comets are suspected
of splitting due to thermal stress, internal gas pressure, or impact.[107]
Comets 42P/Neujmin and 53P/Van Biesbroeck appear to be fragments of a parent comet. Numerical integrations
have shown that both comets had a rather close approach to Jupiter in January 1850, and that, before 1850, the two
orbits were nearly identical.[108]
Some comets have been observed to break up during their perihelion passage, including great comets West and

18

6 NOMENCLATURE

IkeyaSeki. Biela's Comet was one signicant example, when it broke into two pieces during its passage through the
perihelion in 1846. These two comets were seen separately in 1852, but never again afterward. Instead, spectacular
meteor showers were seen in 1872 and 1885 when the comet should have been visible. A lesser meteor shower, the
Andromedids, occurs annually in November, and it is caused when the Earth crosses the orbit of Bielas Comet.[109]

5.4

Collisions

Brown spots mark impact sites of Comet ShoemakerLevy on Jupiter

Some comets meet a more spectacular end either falling into the Sun[110] or smashing into a planet or other body.
Collisions between comets and planets or moons were common in the early Solar System: some of the many craters
on the Moon, for example, may have been caused by comets. A recent collision of a comet with a planet occurred in
July 1994 when Comet ShoemakerLevy 9 broke up into pieces and collided with Jupiter.[111]

Nomenclature

Main article: Naming of comets

The names given to comets have followed several dierent conventions over the past two centuries. Prior to the
early 20th century, most comets were simply referred to by the year when they appeared, sometimes with additional
adjectives for particularly bright comets; thus, the "Great Comet of 1680", the "Great Comet of 1882", and the "Great
January comet of 1910".
After Edmund Halley demonstrated that the comets of 1531, 1607, and 1682 were the same body and successfully
predicted its return in 1759, that comet became known as Halleys Comet.[112] Similarly, the second and third known
periodic comets, Enckes Comet[113] and Bielas Comet,[114] were named after the astronomers who calculated their
orbits rather than their original discoverers. Later, periodic comets were usually named after their discoverers, but
comets that had appeared only once continued to be referred to by the year of their apparition.[115]

19

Halleys Comet, named after the astronomer Edmund Halley for successfully calculating its orbit. 1910 photo.

In the early 20th century, the convention of naming comets after their discoverers became common, and this remains
so today. A comet can be named after its discoverers, or an instrument or program that helped to nd it.[115]

History of study

Main article: Observational history of comets

7.1

Early observations and thought

From ancient sources, such as Chinese oracle bones, it is known that their appearances have been noticed by humans
for millennia.[116] Until the sixteenth century, comets were usually considered bad omens of deaths of kings or noble
men, or coming catastrophes, or even interpreted as attacks by heavenly beings against terrestrial inhabitants.[117][118]
Aristotle believed that comets were atmospheric phenomena, due to the fact that they could appear outside of the
Zodiac and vary in brightness over the course of a few days.[119] Pliny the Elder believed that comets were connected
with political unrest and death.[120]
In the 16th century Tycho Brahe demonstrated that comets must exist outside the Earths atmosphere by measuring
the parallax of the Great Comet of 1577 from observations collected by geographically separated observers. Within
the precision of the measurements, this implied the comet must be at least four times more distant than from the
Earth to the Moon.[121][122]

7.2

Orbital studies

Isaac Newton, in his Principia Mathematica of 1687, proved that an object moving under the inuence of his inverse

20

HISTORY OF STUDY

Halleys Comet appeared at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 (Bayeux Tapestry).

square law of universal gravitation must trace out an orbit shaped like one of the conic sections, and he demonstrated
how to t a comets path through the sky to a parabolic orbit, using the comet of 1680 as an example.[123]
In 1705, Edmond Halley (16561742) applied Newtons method to twenty-three cometary apparitions that had occurred between 1337 and 1698. He noted that three of these, the comets of 1531, 1607, and 1682, had very similar
orbital elements, and he was further able to account for the slight dierences in their orbits in terms of gravitational
perturbation by Jupiter and Saturn. Condent that these three apparitions had been three appearances of the same
comet, he predicted that it would appear again in 17589.[124] Halleys predicted return date was later rened by a
team of three French mathematicians: Alexis Clairaut, Joseph Lalande, and Nicole-Reine Lepaute, who predicted
the date of the comets 1759 perihelion to within one months accuracy.[125] When the comet returned as predicted,
it became known as Halleys Comet (with the latter-day designation of 1P/Halley). It will next appear in 2061.[126]

7.3

Studies of physical characteristics

Isaac Newton described comets as compact and durable solid bodies moving in oblique orbit and their tails as thin
streams of vapor emitted by their nuclei, ignited or heated by the Sun. Newton suspected that comets were the origin
of the life-supporting component of air.[128]

7.4

Spacecraft missions

21

The orbit of the comet of 1680, tted to a parabola, as shown in Isaac Newton's Principia

As early as the 18th century, some scientists had made correct hypotheses as to comets physical composition. In
1755, Immanuel Kant hypothesized that comets are composed of some volatile substance, whose vaporization gives
rise to their brilliant displays near perihelion.[129] In 1836, the German mathematician Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel,
after observing streams of vapor during the appearance of Halleys Comet in 1835, proposed that the jet forces
of evaporating material could be great enough to signicantly alter a comets orbit, and he argued that the nongravitational movements of Enckes Comet resulted from this phenomenon.[130]
In 1950, Fred Lawrence Whipple proposed that rather than being rocky objects containing some ice, comets were
icy objects containing some dust and rock.[131] This dirty snowball model soon became accepted and appeared to
be supported by the observations of an armada of spacecraft (including the European Space Agency's Giotto probe
and the Soviet Unions Vega 1 and Vega 2) that ew through the coma of Halleys Comet in 1986, photographed the
nucleus, and observed jets of evaporating material.[132]
On 22 January 2014, ESA scientists reported the detection, for the rst denitive time, of water vapor on the dwarf
planet Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt.[133] The detection was made by using the far-infrared abilities of the
Herschel Space Observatory.[134] The nding is unexpected because comets, not asteroids, are typically considered
to sprout jets and plumes. According to one of the scientists, The lines are becoming more and more blurred
between comets and asteroids.[134] On 11 August 2014, astronomers released studies, using the Atacama Large
Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) for the rst time, that detailed the distribution of HCN, HNC, H2 CO, and
dust inside the comae of comets C/2012 F6 (Lemmon) and C/2012 S1 (ISON).[135][136]

7.4

Spacecraft missions

See also: List of comets visited by spacecraft

Debate continues about how much ice is in a comet. In 2001, the Deep Space 1 spacecraft obtained high-resolution
images of the surface of Comet Borrelly. It was found that the surface of comet Borrelly is hot and dry, with a
temperature of between 26 to 71 C (79 to 160 F), and extremely dark, suggesting that the ice has been removed by
solar heating and maturation, or is hidden by the soot-like material that covers Borrellys.[137]
In July 2005, the Deep Impact probe blasted a crater on Comet Tempel 1 to study its interior. The mission yielded
results suggesting that the majority of a comets water ice is below the surface and that these reservoirs feed the jets
of vaporised water that form the coma of Tempel 1.[138] Renamed EPOXI, it made a yby of Comet Hartley 2 on
November 4, 2010.
Data from the Stardust mission show that materials retrieved from the tail of Wild 2 were crystalline and could only
have been born in re, at extremely high temperatures of over 1,000 C (1,830 F).[139][140] Although comets formed
in the outer Solar System, radial mixing of material during the early formation of the Solar System is thought to have
redistributed material throughout the proto-planetary disk,[141] so comets also contain crystalline grains that formed
in the hot inner Solar System. This is seen in comet spectra as well as in sample return missions. More recent still,

22

8 EXAMPLES

View from the impactor in its last moments before hitting the comet in the Deep Impact mission

the materials retrieved demonstrate that the comet dust resembles asteroid materials.[142] These new results have
forced scientists to rethink the nature of comets and their distinction from asteroids.[143]
The Rosetta probe is presently in erratic orbit around Comet ChuryumovGerasimenko. On November 12, 2014, its
lander Philae successfully landed on the comets surface, the rst time a spacecraft has ever landed on such an object
in history.[144]

Examples
Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) taken from Victoria, Australia 2007
The Great Comet of 1882 is a member of the Kreutz group
Great Comet 1861

8.1

Great comets

23

NASA is developing a comet harpoon for returning samples to Earth.

8.1

Great comets

Main article: Great Comet

Approximately once a decade, a comet becomes bright enough to be noticed by a casual observer, leading such comets
to be designated as Great Comets.[106]
Predicting whether a comet will become a great comet is notoriously dicult, as many factors may cause a comets
brightness to depart drastically from predictions.[145] Broadly speaking, if a comet has a large and active nucleus, will
pass close to the Sun, and is not obscured by the Sun as seen from the Earth when at its brightest, it has a chance of
becoming a great comet. However, Comet Kohoutek in 1973 fullled all the criteria and was expected to become
spectacular but failed to do so.[146] Comet West, which appeared three years later, had much lower expectations but
became an extremely impressive comet.[147]
The late 20th century saw a lengthy gap without the appearance of any great comets, followed by the arrival of two in
quick successionComet Hyakutake in 1996, followed by HaleBopp, which reached maximum brightness in 1997
having been discovered two years earlier. The rst great comet of the 21st century was C/2006 P1 (McNaught),
which became visible to naked eye observers in January 2007. It was the brightest in over 40 years.[148]

8.2

Sungrazing comets

Main article: Sungrazing comet

A sungrazing comet is a comet that passes extremely close to the Sun at perihelion, generally within a few million
kilometres.[149] Although small sungrazers can be completely evaporated during such a close approach to the Sun,
larger sungrazers can survive many perihelion passages. However, the strong tidal forces they experience often lead
to their fragmentation.[150]
About 90% of the sungrazers observed with SOHO are members of the Kreutz group, which all originate from one
giant comet that broke up into many smaller comets during its rst passage through the inner Solar System.[151] The
remainder contains some sporadic sungrazers, but four other related groups of comets have been identied among
them: the Kracht, Kracht 2a, Marsden, and Meyer groups. The Marsden and Kracht groups both appear to be related
to Comet 96P/Machholz, which is also the parent of two meteor streams, the Quadrantids and the Arietids.[152]

24

Woodcut of the Great Comet of 1577

SOHO spots a Kreutz Sungrazer with a prominent tail, plunging towards the Sun

8 EXAMPLES

8.3

Unusual comets

25

Active asteroid P/2013 P5 with several tails.[153]

8.3

Unusual comets

Of the thousands of known comets, some exhibit unusual properties. Enckes Comet orbits from outside the asteroid
belt to just inside the orbit of the planet Mercury whereas the Comet 29P/SchwassmannWachmann currently travels
in a nearly circular orbit entirely between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn.[154] 2060 Chiron, whose unstable orbit
is between Saturn and Uranus, was originally classied as an asteroid until a faint coma was noticed.[155] Similarly,
Comet ShoemakerLevy 2 was originally designated asteroid 1990 UL3 .[156]
See also Fate of comets.

Observation

A comet may be discovered photographically using a wide-eld telescope or visually with binoculars. However, even
without access to optical equipment, it is still possible for the amateur astronomer to discover a sungrazing comet
online by downloading images accumulated by some satellite observatories such as SOHO.[28] SOHOs 2000th comet
was discovered by Polish amateur astronomer Micha Kusiak on 26 December 2010[157] and both discoverers of
Hale-Bopp used amateur equipment (although Hale was not an amateur).

9.1

Lost

Main article: Lost comet

A number of periodic comets discovered in earlier decades or previous centuries are now lost comets. Their orbits
were never known well enough to predict future appearances or the comets have disintegrated. However, occasionally
a new comet is discovered, and calculation of its orbit shows it to be an old lost comet. An example is Comet

26

10 COMETS & CULTURE

X-ray emission from Hyakutake, as seen by the ROSAT satellite.

11P/TempelSwiftLINEAR, discovered in 1869 but unobservable after 1908 because of perturbations by Jupiter.
It was not found again until accidentally rediscovered by LINEAR in 2001.[158]

10

Comets & culture

See also: Comets in ction and Category:Impact events in ction

The depiction of comets in popular culture is rmly rooted in the long Western tradition of seeing comets as
harbingers of doom and as omens of world-altering change.[159] Halleys Comet alone has caused a slew of sensationalist publications of all sorts at each of its reappearances. It was especially noted that the birth and death of
some notable persons coincided with separate appearances of the comet, such as with writers Mark Twain (who
correctly speculated that he'd go out with the comet in 1910)[159] and Eudora Welty, to whose life Mary Chapin
Carpenter dedicated the song Halley Came to Jackson.[159]
In times past, bright comets often inspired panic and hysteria in the general population, being thought of as bad
omens. More recently, during the passage of Halleys Comet in 1910, the Earth passed through the comets tail,
and erroneous newspaper reports inspired a fear that cyanogen in the tail might poison millions,[160] whereas the
appearance of Comet HaleBopp in 1997 triggered the mass suicide of the Heavens Gate cult.[161]

27

Comet Hale-Bopp, as seen in Pazin, Croatia 1997.

In science ction, the impact of comets has been depicted as a threat overcome by technology and heroism (Deep
Impact, 1998), or as a trigger of global apocalypse (Lucifers Hammer, 1979) or of waves of zombies (Night of the
Comet, 1984).[159] In Jules Verne's O on a Comet a group of people are stranded on a comet orbiting the Sun, while
a large manned space expedition visits Halleys Comet in Sir Arthur C. Clarke's novel 2061: Odyssey Three.[162]

28

12

11

REFERENCES

See also
Comet vintages
Lists of comets
The Big Splash

12
12.1

References
Notes

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Retrieved 30 July 2013.
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[6] European Space Agency, Rosettas Philae probe lands on comet.
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12.1

Notes

29

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19P/Borrelly: Using the volume of an ellipsoid of 8x4x4km * a density of 0.3 g/cm3 yields a mass of 2.0E+13 kg.
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34

14

12.2

EXTERNAL LINKS

Sources

Sagan, Carl; Druyan, Ann (1997). Comet. ISBN 9780747276647.

13

Further reading
Schechner, S. J. (1997). Comets, Popular Culture, and the Birth of Modern Cosmology. Princeton University
Press..
Brandt, J.C. and Chapman, R.D.: Introduction to comets, Cambridge University Press 2004

14

External links
Comets at DMOZ
Comets Page at NASAs Solar System Exploration
International Comet Quarterly
How to Make a Model of a Comet audio slideshow National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Catalogue of the Solar System Small Bodies Orbital Evolution
Information about comets and asteroids

35

15

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File:14060-Asteroid-P2013R3-Disintegration-20140306.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/14060-Asteroid-P2013R3-Dis

jpg License: Public domain Contributors: http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/14-060-asteroid-disintegration_1.jpg Original artist:
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File:Comet-Hale-Bopp-29-03-1997_hires_adj.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Comet-Hale-Bopp-29-03-1997_
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File:Comet_67P_on_19_September_2014_NavCam_mosaic.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Comet_
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http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/54679-comet-67p-on-19-september-2014-navcam-mosaic/
http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/09/19/cometwatch-19-september/
Original artist: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM, CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
File:Comet_Kohoutek_orbit_p391.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Comet_Kohoutek_orbit_p391.
svg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Comet_Parts.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Comet_Parts.jpg License: Public domain Contributors:
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=903 Original artist: NASA Ames Research Center/K. Jobse, P. Jenniskens
File:Comet_Wild2.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Comet_Wild2.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Comet_borrelly.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Comet_borrelly.jpg License: Public domain
Contributors: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2002/release_2002_80.html Original artist:
File:Comet_wild_2.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Comet_wild_2.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Comets-Yuri-Beletsky.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Comets-Yuri-Beletsky.jpg License: CC
BY 3.0 Contributors: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=431486486936170&set=a.182924768459011.49669.178745152210306&
type=1&permPage=1 Original artist: Juri Beletsky, Observatorio de Las Campanas, Chile
File:Commons-logo.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg License: ? Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Crab_Nebula.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Crab_Nebula.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: HubbleSite: gallery, release. Original artist: NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University)
File:Earth-moon.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Earth-moon.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: NASA [1] Original artist: Apollo 8 crewmember Bill Anders

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File:Encke_tail_rip_off.ogg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Encke_tail_rip_off.ogg License: Public domain Contributors:

Encke_tail_rip_of.gif Original artist: Encke_tail_rip_of.gif: NASA
File:Great_Comet_of_1577.gif Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Great_Comet_of_1577.gif License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:HRIV_Impact.gif Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/HRIV_Impact.gif License: Public domain Contributors: Recreated from the original raw encounter data (FITS images) downloaded from Small Bodies Mission Support for the Deep
Impact Mission. Original artist: Paul Stephen Carlin
File:Halley{}s_Comet,_1910.JPG Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Halley%27s_Comet%2C_1910.JPG
License: Public domain Contributors: Purchased by The New York Times for publication. Another image of Halleys Comet, taken on May
29th, 1910, is available through their online photo archive store, here Original artist: The Yerkes Observatory
File:Hartley2jets2_epoxi_big.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Hartley2jets2_epoxi_big.jpg License:
Public domain Contributors: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap101123.html Original artist: NASA, JPL-Caltech, UMD, EPOXI Mission
File:Hubble{}s_Last_Look_at_Comet_ISON_Before_Perihelion.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/
45/Hubble%27s_Last_Look_at_Comet_ISON_Before_Perihelion.jpg License: ? Contributors: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/
opo1347a/ Original artist: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
File:Hyakutake_Color.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Hyakutake_Color.jpg License: CC BY-SA
3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: E. Kolmhofer, H. Raab; Johannes-Kepler-Observatory, Linz, Austria (http://www.sternwarte.
at)
File:ITS_Impact.gif Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/ITS_Impact.gif License: Public domain Contributors: Recreated from the original raw encounter data (FITS images) downloaded from Small Bodies Mission Support for the Deep Impact
Mission. Original artist: Paul Stephen Carlin
File:Iss030e015472_Edit.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Iss030e015472_Edit.jpg License: Public
domain Contributors: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-30/html/iss030e015472.html Original artist: NASA/Dan
Burbank
File:Jupiter_showing_SL9_impact_sites.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Jupiter_showing_SL9_
impact_sites.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1994/1994/34/image/a/ Original artist: Hubble Space Telescope Comet Team and NASA
File:Kuiper_oort-en.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Kuiper_oort-en.svg License: Public domain
Contributors: http://herschel.jpl.nasa.gov/solarSystem.shtml Original artist:
This SVG image was created by Medium69.
File:Lovejoy-hi1a_srem_dec12_14.gif Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Lovejoy-hi1a_srem_dec12_14.
gif License: Public domain Contributors: The Great Birthday Comet of 2011, Chapter 2: Survival / (direct link) Original artist:
NASA/STEREO
File:NASA-14090-Comet-C2013A1-SidingSpring-Hubble-20140311.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/
a/ac/NASA-14090-Comet-C2013A1-SidingSpring-Hubble-20140311.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: http://www.nasa.gov/
sites/default/files/14-090-hubble-comet_0.jpg Original artist: NASA, ESA, and J.-Y. Li (Planetary Science Institute)
File:NASA_Developing_Comet_Harpoon_for_Sample_Return.ogv Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/
NASA_Developing_Comet_Harpoon_for_Sample_Return.ogv License: Public domain Contributors: Goddard Multimedia Original artist:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
File:Newton_Comet1680.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Newton_Comet1680.jpg License: Public
domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Office-book.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Office-book.svg License: Public domain Contributors: This and myself. Original artist: Chris Down/Tango project
File:PSM_V18_D201_Shower_of_perseids_sept_6_and_7.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/PSM_
V18_D201_Shower_of_perseids_sept_6_and_7.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Popular Science Monthly Volume 18 Original
artist: Unknown
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File:Portal-puzzle.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fd/Portal-puzzle.svg License: Public domain Contributors: ?
Original artist: ?
File:RocketSunIcon.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/RocketSunIcon.svg License: Copyrighted free
use Contributors: Self made, based on File:Spaceship and the Sun.jpg Original artist: Me
File:SOHO_sungrazer_with_prominent_tail.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3d/SOHO_sungrazer_with_prominent_
tail.jpg License: Fair use Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Schwassman-Wachmann3-B-HST.gif Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Schwassman-Wachmann3-B-HST.
gif License: Public domain Contributors: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2006/18/image/ Original artist: NASA,
ESA, H. Weaver (APL/JHU), M. Mutchler and Z. Levay (STScI). Animation from three images by User:Vesta
File:Solar_system.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Solar_system.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Symbol_support_vote.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/94/Symbol_support_vote.svg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?

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TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

File:Tapestry_of_bayeux10.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Tapestry_of_bayeux10.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news90.html; this is a crop of the original tapestry, which has been published
in: Bruce, John Collingwood (1856) "The Succession" in The Bayeux Tapestry Elucidated, London: John Russell Smith, pp. Plate VII
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