Comets

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Term Paper Title	Comets
# of Words	1812
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	7.25

Comets

Comets

     Have you ever looked up in the sky and seen a little ball creeping by?
If so, did you wonder what it was?  That little ball is called a comet.  Comets
are small, fragile, and irregularly shaped.  Most are composed of frozen gas.
However, some are composed of frozen gas and non-volatile grains.  They usually
follow very strict paths around the sun.  Comets become most visible when they
cross the sun.  This also applies to people who view comets with telescopes.
When a comet gets near the sun it becomes very visible because the sun's
radiation starts to sublime its volatile gases, which, in turn, blow away small
bits of the little solid material the comet has.
     Another feature of a comet is a long tail.  This is caused by materials
breaking off and expanding.  They expand into an enormous escaping atmosphere
called the coma.  This becomes at least the size of our planet.  With the comet
going so fast, these materials are forced behind the comet, forming a long tail
of dust and gas.
     Comets are cold bodies.  We see them only because the gases they are
composed of glow in the sunlight.  All comets are regular family members of the
solar system family.  They are bound  by gravity to a strict path around the
solar system.  Scientists believe that all comets were formed of material,
originally in the outer part of the solar system, which did not become
incorporated into planets.  This material is from when the planets just started
forming.  This makes comets an extremely interesting topic to scientists who are
studying the history of the solar system.
     In comparison to planets, comets are very small.  They can be anywhere
from 750 meters (or less) to 20 kilometers in diameter.  However, lately,
scientists have been finding proof that there are comets 300 kilometers in
diameter or greater.
     Comets are still compared to the planets, though.  Planets usually
follow the shape of a sphere.  Most planets are fat at the equator.  Comets come
in all different shapes and sizes.  Most evidence that science has revealed says
that comets are extremely fragile.  A comet is so poorly structured that it is
like a loose snowball--it can be pulled apart with one's own bare hands.
     Comets have very awkward rotation periods.  They are very oblong.  When
comets reach their aphelion  they are usually near Jupiter or even sometimes
Neptune.  Other comets, however, come from even farther out in the solar system.
No matter what, if a comet passes Jupiter, it is strongl...

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