Comets

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Comets are icy bodies which lie in the outer solar system. They orbit the Sun as other planets do. Their revolution around the Sun can be brief to 1,000's of years. Halley's comet visits our region every 76 years. As comets approach the Sun the heat from the Sun causes them to vaporize on the surface leaving a comet trail behind them. The tail always points away from the Sun because the solar wind blows it behind the comet. As the comet nears the Sun the tail becomes quite long sometimes millions of miles long. After so many passes the all the ice from a comet is gone leaving a meteoroid orbiting the Sun.

Comet Photos Courtesy of NASA/JPL