Where do Comets Come From?

With two comets grazing our skies this July, let’s talk about their origins.

Comets are leftover bits of debris from the formation of the Solar System, and are mostly ice mixed with organic materials. Unlike planets and asteroids, which revolve around the Sun in elliptical orbits, comets usually take much steeper orbits that take them far outside the orbits of the planets, and can take centuries to return. In fact some comets pass the Sun with so much energy that they never return.

The comets that return regularly are called periodic comets, and we know of many that visited before and are making a return path. With our ever increasing technology, we’re able to detect new comets regularly, and by analyzing their sweep we can predict if the comet will be back in the future, and if it has passed by before. The most distant comets can take up to 30 million years to complete a trip around the Sun!

Every comet that gets close enough to the Sun will have gas and dust blow of its nucleus into a long, elongated tail by the charged particles from the Sun. This means that at any given time, a comet’s tail is pointing directly away from the Sun, like a kite blowing with the wind.

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Stay well, and clear skies!