Solar system. Comets. Heavenly Wanderers
Apart from major planets and asteroids around the sun are moving comets. Comets are the longest objects solar system. The word "comet" in Greek means "hairy", "long-haired". When approaching the Sun, the comet takes on a spectacular appearance, heating up under the action of solar heat so that gas and dust fly away from the surface, forming a bright tail. The appearance of most comets is unpredictable. People have paid attention to them since time immemorial. It is impossible not to notice in the sky a spectacle so rare, and therefore terrifying, more terrible than any eclipse, when a foggy star is visible in the sky, sometimes so bright that it can sparkle through the clouds (1577), eclipsing even the moon. And from the bowels of the uninvited heavenly guest, huge tails break out ... Aristotle in the 4th century BC. explained the phenomenon of the comet as follows: light, warm, "dry pneuma" (gases of the Earth) rises to the boundaries of the atmosphere, enters the sphere of heavenly fire and ignites - this is how "tailed stars" are formed. Aristotle argued that comets cause severe storms, drought. His ideas were universally recognized for two millennia. In the Middle Ages, comets were considered harbingers of wars and epidemics. So the Norman invasion of southern England in 1066 was associated with the appearance of Halley's comet in the sky. The fall of Constantinople in 1456 was also associated with the appearance of a comet in the sky. Studying the appearance of a comet in 1577, Tycho Brahe found that it was moving far beyond the orbit of the moon. The time for the study of the orbits of comets began ... The first fanatic, eager to discover comets, was Charles Messier, an employee of the Paris Observatory. He entered the history of astronomy as a compiler of a catalog of nebulae and star clusters, intended to search for comets, so as not to mistake distant nebulous objects for new comets. The catalog includes open and globular clusters and galaxies. The Andromeda Nebula is named M31 according to the Messier catalog. For 39 years of observations, Messier discovered 14 new comets! In the first half of the 19th century, among the "catchers" of comets, Jean Pons especially distinguished himself. The watchman of the Marseille Observatory, and later its director, he decided to join the observations of tailed "stars". Pons built a small amateur telescope and, following the example of his compatriot Messier, began searching for comets. The case turned out to be so exciting that in 26 years he discovered 33 new comets! It is no coincidence that astronomers have nicknamed it the "Comet Magnet". The record set by Pons still remains unsurpassed. Comets are discovered annually. On average, they open about 20 a year. About 50 comets are available for observation, and in the entire history of mankind, about two thousand comet appearances have been observed.
Halley's comet moves in an elliptical orbit in the opposite direction of the rotation of the planets.
Halley's Comet in the sky over Georgia, USA. The photo was taken in March 1986. The orbits of most comets are highly elongated ellipses. In 1702 Edmund Halley proved that the comets of 1531, 1607 and 1682 had the same orbit. It turns out that comets are back! The orbital period of Halley's comet around the Sun is 76 years, the semi-major axis of the orbit is 17.8 AU, the eccentricity is 0.97, the inclination of the orbit to the ecliptic plane is 162.2 °, the perihelion distance is 0.59 AU. The last date for the passage of perihelion is 1986. In 2000, Halley's comet is between the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. The aphelion of the orbit of Halley's comet is far beyond the orbit of Neptune.
Comet Hale-Bopp, 1997. Comet Hale-Bopp was discovered simultaneously by two amateur astronomers in 1995 as an object of 10th magnitude. With the help of the telescope Hubble discovered hydroxyl OH in the atmosphere of a comet, which is formed as a result of the decay of water molecules under the influence of ultraviolet radiation from the sun. A 15-meter radio telescope in the Hawaiian Islands in a comet registered the emission of molecules of cyanic acid - the strongest poison! In the gas envelope of the celestial guest, the glow of many other molecules characteristic of the composition of comets was noted, for example, carbon monoxide, cyanide, ammonia decomposition products. According to experts, the diameter of the nucleus of the comet Hale-Bopp is at least 50 kilometers. The latter means that it is at least 100 times more massive than the nucleus of Halley's comet. On March 23, 1997, the comet passed at the shortest distance from the Earth - 196 million kilometers, then began to move away from the Sun. The period of revolution of the comet is 3000 years. Far from the Sun, near aphelion, comets stay for a longer time than near perihelion. The further a comet is from the Sun, the lower its temperature. At the same time, the substance of the comet ceases to evaporate, the tail and coma disappear, the apparent magnitude of the comet increases, and it ceases to be visible. Near perihelion, comets move at high speeds, they form a huge tail.
Comets - the most numerous and most amazing celestial bodies solar system. According to scientists, on the far outskirts of the solar system, in the so-called Oort cloud - a giant spherical cluster of cometary matter - about 1012-1013 comets are concentrated, orbiting the Sun at distances from 3000 to 160,000 AU, which is half the distance to the nearest stars. Under the influence of disturbances from nearby stars, some comets leave the solar system forever. Others, on the contrary, rush to the Sun along strongly elongated orbits and, thanks to a sharp increase in the flow solar radiation become ordinary comets. There, under the influence of the gravity of the giant planets, they can go into elliptical orbits.
Comet Hyakutake, which appeared in 1996.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 approached Jupiter in 1992 and was torn apart by its gravity, and in July 1994 its fragments collided with Jupiter, causing fantastic effects in the planet's atmosphere.
With each approach to the Sun, the comet loses some of its mass in the form of gas and dust thrown into the head and tail. At the same time, the heads of comets sometimes reach sizes exceeding the size of the Sun, and the tails sometimes have a length of more than 1 AU. The comet of 1888 had a tail larger than the distance from the Sun to Jupiter! Spectral studies show that the comet contains both gas and dust components; the latter shines only by reflected sunlight. The same can be said about the brightest central part of the comet's head, which observers usually call the nucleus. In 1986, Halley's comet was investigated by AMS "Vega-1", "Vega-2", "Giotto". The nucleus of Halley's comet is a cosmic body 14 × 7.5 × 7.5 km in size and weighing 6 1014 kg. The nucleus of the comet rotates slowly with a period of 53 hours. The comet's surface is very dark, with an albedo of 0.04. Surface temperature at a distance of 0.8 AU was about 360 K. carbon dioxide and dust. Every second near perihelion, the comet ejects 45 tons of gas and 8 tons of dust. 
Comet Halley on March 13, 1986 near the Milky Way. According to the hypothesis of the famous American researcher Fred Whipple, the cometary nucleus is an ice block consisting of a mixture of frozen water and frozen gases interspersed with refractory stony and metal particles, meteoric matter. Figuratively speaking, it looks like a "contaminated iceberg". The "ices" of the cometary nucleus consist of simple compounds of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen, and as such an iceberg approaches the Sun, they begin to evaporate intensively. Then all the blocks and stones included in the ice with a diameter of several meters to centimeters and millimeters are exposed and, in turn, release adsorbed gases and supply dust. They can form a swarm of independent blocks and stones. Fountains of gas can even change the comet's orbit. An extensive luminous gaseous shell, a coma, forms around the nucleus. Together with the nucleus, it makes up the head of the comet. Further approach of the comet to the Sun leads to the fact that its head becomes oval, then lengthens and a tail develops from it. Most often, comet tails are directed away from the Sun due to the pressure of sunlight on gas molecules and dust particles released from the cometary nucleus. The nucleus of a comet is not a solid single body, even if of asteroid size, but a collection of individual bodies. These bodies (blocks, stones, grains of sand, dust particles) are weakly interconnected, but still form a single whole for the time being. However, with each approach to the Sun, the periodic comet becomes weaker. Some of them are quite "strong": so Halley's comet with a longer period, 76 years, has been observed since 466 BC. e. Over the past millennia, it has passed perihelion 32 times. Comet Encke with a period of 3.3 years was discovered in 1786 and experienced more than a dozen of its tails during this time. However, its absolute magnitude has increased by at least 2m over these two centuries. And there are those that "do not withstand" more than two or three approaches to the Sun and, breaking up, give rise to a meteorite swarm that continues to move along the old orbit. When it meets the Earth, we observe a meteor shower.
It is not uncommon for comets to break up into several parts, thus demonstrating the low coherence of its matter. Biela's comet is a classic example. It was discovered in 1772 and observed in 1815, 1826 and 1832. In 1845, the size of the comet turned out to be increased, and in January 1846, observers were surprised to find two very close comets instead of one. The relative motions of both comets were calculated, and it turned out that Biela's comet had split into two about a year ago, but at first the components were projected one on top of the other, and the separation was not immediately noticed. Comet Biela was observed one more time, with one component much weaker than the other. Couldn't find her anymore. On the other hand, a meteor shower was repeatedly observed, the orbit of which coincided with the orbit of Biela's comet.
Comet Halley on March 12, 1986. The white dust and blue plasma tails are clearly visible. Two "scratching" comets were first observed from the SOLWIND satellite in close proximity to the Sun in the shadow of an artificial disk. It was extended many meters ahead of the device and created an imitation solar eclipse in the absence of atmospheric disturbances. In January and July 1981, comets were observed at distances from the Sun slightly greater than its radius, and even within solar corona did not cease to exist. It is safe to say that the entire dust component of these comets evaporated in the solar corona, but the larger bodies that were part of the comet's nucleus (stone blocks) "survived" the extremely high temperature for several hours in the corona and escaped along the original orbit, moving away from the Sun as a cluster of small solids and already invisible. Since then, comets flying near the Sun have been regularly discovered.
Source of information: "Open Astronomy 2.5", LLC "FISICON"
Comets- small celestial bodies revolving around the Sun: description and characteristics with photos, 10 interesting facts about comets, a list of objects, names.
In the past, people looked at the arrival of comets with horror and fear, as they believed that this was an omen of death, catastrophes, or God's punishment. Chinese scientists for centuries collected data, tracking the frequency of arrival of objects and their trajectory. These chronicles have become valuable resources for modern astronomers.
Today we know that comets are leftover material and small bodies from the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. They are represented by ice, on which there is a dark crust of organic material. Because of this, they received the nickname "dirty snowballs." These are valuable objects for studying the early system. They could also become a source of water and organic compounds - essential life components.
In 1951, Gerard Kuiper suggested that beyond the orbital path of Neptune lies a disk-shaped belt with a population of dark comets. These icy objects are periodically pushed into orbits and become short-period comets. They spend less than 200 years in orbit. It is more difficult to observe comets with long periods, the duration of the orbital path of which exceeds two centuries. Such objects live in the territory of the Oort cloud (at a distance of 100,000 AU). One flyby can take up to 30 million years.
Each comet has a frozen part - the nucleus, which does not exceed several kilometers in length. Consists of ice fragments, frozen gases and dust particles. As the comet approaches the Sun, it heats up and forms a coma. Heating causes the ice to sublimate into a gas, so the coma expands. Sometimes it can cover hundreds of thousands of kilometers. The solar wind and pressure can eliminate dust and coma gas, resulting in a long and bright tail. Usually there are two of them - dust and gas. Below is a list of the most famous comets in the solar system. Follow the link to study the description, characteristics and photos of small bodies.
| Name | open | Discoverer | Major axis | Period of circulation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 21, 2012 | Vitaly Nevsky, Artyom Olegovich Novichonok, Observatory ISON-Kislovodsk | ? | ? | |
| 1786 | Pierre Mechain | 2.22 a. e. | 3.3 g | |
| March 24, 1993 | Eugene and Carolina Shoemaker, David Levy | 6.86 a. e. | 17.99 g | |
| April 3, 1867 | Ernst Tempel | 3.13 a. e. | 5.52 g | |
| December 28, 1904 | A. Borelli | 3.61 a. e. | 6.85 g | |
| July 23, 1995 | A. Hale, T. Bopp | 185 a. e. | 2534 g | |
| January 6, 1978 | Paul Wild | 3.45 a. e. | 6.42 g | |
| September 20, 1969 | Churyumov, Gerasimenko | 3.51 a. e. | 6.568 g | |
| January 3, 2013 | Robert McNaught, Siding Spring Observatory | ? | 400000 g | |
| December 20, 1900 | Michel Giacobini, Ernst Zinner | 3.527 a. e. | 6.623 g | |
| April 5, 1861 | A.E. Thatcher | 55.6 a. e. | 415.0 g | |
| July 16, 1862 | Lewis Swift, Tuttle, Horace Parnell | 26.316943 a. e. | 135.0 g | |
| December 19, 1865 | Ernst Tempel and Horace Tuttle | 10.337486 a. e. | 33.2g | |
| 1758 | Observed in ancient times; | 2.66795 billion km | 75.3 g | |
| October 31, 2013 | Catalina Sky Survey Observatory | ? | ? | |
| June 6, 2011 | Telescope Pan-STARRS | ? | ? |
Most comets move at a safe distance from the Sun (Halley's comet does not come closer than 89 million km). But some crash directly into the star or get so close that they evaporate.
Name of comets
The name of a comet can be complicated. Most often they are named after the discoverers - a person or spaceship. This rule appeared only in the 20th century. Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, for example, is named after Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy. Be sure to read Interesting Facts about comets and information you need to know.
Comets: 10 things to know about
- If our star, the Sun, were the size of a door, Earth would be a coin, dwarf Pluto would be a pinhead, and the largest Kuiper belt comet (100 km wide) would occupy the diameter of a dust grain;
- Short-period comets (spend less than 200 years on an orbital flyby) live in the icy territory of the Kuiper belt beyond the orbit of Neptune (30-55 AU). At its maximum distance, Halley's Comet is located 5.3 billion km from the Sun. Long period comets (long or unpredictable orbits) approach from the Oort cloud (100 AU from the Sun);
- One day on Halley's comet lasts 2.2-7.4 days (one axial revolution). It takes 76 years to complete one revolution around the Sun;
- Comets are cosmic snowballs with frozen gases, dust, and rocks;
- As the comet approaches the Sun, it heats up, creating an atmosphere (coma) capable of covering hundreds of thousands of kilometers in diameter;
- Comets don't have rings;
- Comets have no satellites;
- Several missions were sent to comets, and Stardust-NExT and Deep Impact EPOXI managed to get samples;
- Comets are not capable of supporting life, but are believed to be the source of it. As part of their composition, they can transport water and organic compounds, which may have ended up on Earth in a collision;
- Halley's Comet is depicted in the 1066 Bayeux Tapestry, which tells of the fall of King Harold at the hands of William the Conqueror;
Moving in orbit around the sun. The comet got its name from Greek word"long-haired" because people in Ancient Greece comets were believed to be like stars with billowing hair.
Comets form tail only when they are close to the Sun. When are they far from sun, then comets are dark, cold, icy objects.
The icy body of a comet is referred to as nucleus. It occupies up to 90% of the weight of the comet. The core is formed from all sorts of ice, dirt and dust that formed the foundation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. At the same time, ice consists of frozen water, and a mixture of various gases, such as ammonia, carbon, methane, etc. And in the center there is a rather small stone core.
When approaching the Sun, the ice begins to heat up and evaporate, emitting gases and dust grains that form a cloud or atmosphere around the comet, called coma. As the comet continues to move closer to the Sun, the dust particles and other debris in the coma are blown away by the pressure of sunlight from the Sun. This explains the fact that comet tails are always directed away from the Sun. This process forms dust tail(it can be observed even with the naked eye). Most often, comets also have a second tail. plasma tail clearly visible in photographs, but very difficult to see without a telescope.
Over time, comets begin to move in the opposite direction from the Sun, and their activity decreases, and tails and coma disappear. They again become an ordinary ice core. And when comet orbits again lead them to the Sun, then the head and tails of the comet will appear again.
The dimensions of comets are very, very different. The smallest comets are characterized by a nucleus size of up to 16 kilometers. The largest recorded core was about 40 kilometers in diameter. Tailings of dust and ions can be colossal. ion tail Comet Hyakutake stretched for about 580 million kilometers.
There are many hypotheses about the origin of the comet, but the most popular is that comets originated from the remains of substances at birth. solar system. Some scientists believe that it was comets that brought water to Earth and organic matter which later became the source of life.
Meteor Rain you can see when the Earth's orbit crosses the trail of debris left behind by the comet. From Earth every year in August you can see Perseids(meteor shower). It happens at the time when the Earth is passing through orbit of Comet Swift-Tuttle.
Astronomers do not know the exact number of comets, this is explained by the fact that the majority of them have never been seen. In 2010, just over 4,000 comets were recorded in our solar system.
Comets can change their direction of flight, which is explained by several factors: when passing near a planet, the latter may slightly change comet path; also comets moving towards the sun fall directly into it.
Over millions of years, most comets gravitationally leave the boundaries of the solar system or lose their ice and break up during movement.
In 2009, Robert McNaught opened Comet C/2009 R1, which is approaching the Earth, and in mid-June 2010, the inhabitants of the northern hemisphere will be able to see it with the naked eye.
Comet Morehouse(C / 1908 R1) - a comet discovered in the USA in 1908, which was the first of the comets to be actively studied using photography. Amazing changes were seen in the structure of the tail. During the day of September 30, 1908, these changes occurred continuously. On October 1, the tail broke off and could no longer be observed visually, although a photograph taken on October 2 showed three tails. The rupture and subsequent growth of the tails occurred repeatedly.
Comet Tebbutt(C/1861 J1) - A bright comet visible to the naked eye was discovered by an Australian amateur astronomer in 1861. The Earth passed through the comet's tail on June 30, 1861.
Comet Hyakutake(C/1996 B2) is a large comet that reached magnitude zero in March 1996 and produced a tail estimated to be at least 7 degrees long. Its apparent brightness is largely due to its proximity to the Earth - the comet passed from it at a distance of less than 15 million km. The maximum approach to the Sun is 0.23 AU, and its diameter is about 5 km.
Comet Humason(C / 1961 R1) - a giant comet, discovered in 1961. Its tails, despite being so far from the Sun, still extend 5 AU in length, which is an example of unusually high activity.
Comet McNaught(C/2006 P1), also known as the Great Comet of 2007, is a long-period comet discovered on August 7, 2006 by British-Australian astronomer Robert McNaught and has become the brightest comet in the last 40 years. Residents of the northern hemisphere could easily observe it with the naked eye in January and February 2007. In January 2007, the comet's magnitude reached -6.0; The comet was visible everywhere in daylight, and the maximum length of the tail was 35 degrees.
Solar system comets have always been of interest to space explorers. The question of what these phenomena are is of concern to people who are far from studying comets. Let's try to figure out what this celestial body looks like, whether it can affect the life of our planet.
The content of the article:
A comet is a celestial body formed in space, the size of which reaches a small scale. locality. The composition of comets (cold gases, dust and rock fragments) makes this phenomenon truly unique. The tail of a comet leaves a trail that is estimated at millions of kilometers. This spectacle fascinates with its grandeur and leaves more questions than answers.
The concept of a comet as an element of the solar system
To understand this concept, one should start from the orbits of comets. Many of these cosmic bodies pass through the solar system.
Consider in detail the features of comets:
- Comets are the so-called snowballs, passing along their orbit and containing dusty, rocky and gaseous accumulations.
- The heating of the celestial body occurs during the period of approach to the main star of the solar system.
- Comets do not have satellites, which are characteristic of planets.
- Systems of formations in the form of rings are also not characteristic of comets.
- The size of these celestial bodies is difficult and sometimes unrealistic to determine.
- Comets do not support life. However, their composition can serve as a certain building material.
Features of the structure of comets
The description of a comet can be divided into characteristics of the nucleus, coma, and tail of the object. This suggests that the studied celestial body cannot be called a simple construction.
comet nucleus
Almost the entire mass of the comet lies precisely in the nucleus, which is the most difficult object to study. The reason is that the core is hidden even from the most powerful telescopes by the matter of the luminous plane.
There are 3 theories that differently consider the structure of the nucleus of comets:
- The Dirty Snowball Theory. This assumption is the most common and belongs to the American scientist Fred Lawrence Whipple. According to this theory, the solid part of the comet is nothing more than a combination of ice and fragments of meteorite substance. According to this specialist, old comets and bodies of a younger formation are distinguished. Their structure is different due to the fact that more mature celestial bodies repeatedly approached the Sun, which melted their original composition.
- The core is made of dusty material. The theory was voiced at the beginning of the 21st century thanks to the study of the phenomenon of American space station. The data of this reconnaissance indicate that the core is a dusty material of a very loose nature with pores occupying most of its surface.
- The core cannot be a monolithic structure. Further, the hypotheses diverge: they imply a structure in the form of a snow swarm, blocks of rock-ice clusters and a meteorite heap due to the influence of planetary gravitations.
comet coma
Together with the nucleus, the head of the comet forms a coma, which is a hazy shell of light color. The plume of such a component of the comet stretches for a rather long distance: from one hundred thousand to almost one and a half million kilometers from the base of the object.
There are three levels of coma, which look like this:
- The inside of the chemical, molecular and photochemical composition. Its structure is determined by the fact that in this region the main changes occurring with the comet are concentrated and are most activated. Chemical reactions, decay and ionization of neutrally charged particles - all this characterizes the processes that take place in an internal coma.
- coma radicals. Consists of molecules that are active in their chemical nature. In this area, there is no increased activity of substances, which is so characteristic of an internal coma. However, even here the process of decay and excitation of the described molecules continues in a calmer and smoother mode.
- Coma atomic composition . It is also called ultraviolet. This region of the comet's atmosphere is observed in the Lyman-alpha hydrogen line in the remote ultraviolet spectral region.
comet tail
The tail of a comet is a spectacle unique in its beauty and spectacularity. Usually it is directed from the Sun and looks like an elongated gas-dust plume. Such tails do not have clear boundaries, and it can be said that their color range is close to complete transparency.
Fedor Bredikhin proposed to classify sparkling plumes into the following subspecies:
- Straight and narrow tails. These components of the comet have a direction from main star solar system.
- Slightly deformed and wide tails. These plumes evade the Sun.
- Short and severely deformed tails. Such a change is caused by a significant deviation from the main luminary of our system.
- dust tail. A distinctive visual feature of this element is that its glow has a characteristic reddish tint. A plume of this format is homogeneous in its structure, stretching for a million or even tens of millions of kilometers. It was formed due to numerous dust particles, which the energy of the Sun threw over a long distance. The yellow hue of the tail is due to the scattering of dust particles by sunlight.
- Plasma structure tail. This plume is much more extensive than the dust plume, because its length is estimated at tens, and sometimes hundreds of millions of kilometers. The comet interacts with the solar wind, from which a similar phenomenon arises. As is known, solar vortex flows are penetrated by a large number of fields of the magnetic nature of the formation. They, in turn, collide with the comet's plasma, which leads to the creation of a pair of regions with diametrically different polarities. At times there is a spectacular break in this tail and the formation of a new one, which looks very impressive.
- anti-tail. It appears in a different way. The reason is that it is heading towards the sunny side. The influence of the solar wind on such a phenomenon is extremely small, because the plume contains dust particles. large size. It is realistic to observe such an anti-tail only when the Earth crosses the comet's orbital plane. A disc-shaped formation surrounds the celestial body from almost all sides.
The main types of comets
Types of comets can be distinguished by the time of their revolution around the Sun:
- short period comets. The orbital time of such a comet does not exceed 200 years. At the maximum distance from the Sun, they do not have tails, but only a barely perceptible coma. With a periodic approach to the main luminary, a plume appears. More than four hundred similar comets have been recorded, among which there are short-period celestial bodies with a term of revolution around the Sun of 3-10 years.
- Comets with a long orbital period. The Oort cloud, according to scientists, periodically supplies such space guests. The orbital term of these phenomena exceeds two hundred years, which makes the study of such objects more problematic. Two hundred and fifty such aliens give grounds to assert that in fact there are millions of them. Not all of them are so close to the main star of the system that it becomes possible to observe their activity.
The most famous comets in the solar system
There are a large number of comets that pass through the solar system. But there are the most famous space bodies worth talking about.
Comet Halley
Halley's comet became famous thanks to the observations of the famous explorer, after whom it got its name. It can be attributed to short-period bodies, because its return to the main star is calculated as a period of 75 years. It is worth noting the change in this indicator towards parameters that fluctuate within 74-79 years. Its celebrity lies in the fact that this is the first celestial body of this type, the orbit of which could be calculated.
Certainly some long period comets more spectacular, but 1P/Halley can be observed even with the naked eye. This factor makes this phenomenon unique and popular. Almost thirty recorded appearances of this comet pleased outside observers. Their periodicity directly depends on the gravitational influence of large planets on the life of the described object.
The speed of Halley's comet in relation to our planet is amazing, because it exceeds all indicators of the activity of the celestial bodies of the solar system. The approach of the Earth's orbital system with the orbit of a comet can be observed at two points. This results in two dusty formations, which in turn form meteor showers called Aquarids and Oreanids.
If we consider the structure of such a body, then it differs little from other comets. When approaching the Sun, the formation of a sparkling plume is observed. The comet's nucleus is relatively small, which may indicate a pile of debris in the form of building material for the object's base.
It will be possible to enjoy the extraordinary spectacle of the passage of Halley's comet in the summer of 2061. A better view of the grandiose phenomenon is promised compared to the more than modest visit in 1986.
This is a fairly new discovery, which was made in July 1995. Two space explorers discovered this comet. Moreover, these scientists conducted separate searches from each other. There are many different opinions regarding the described body, but experts agree on the version that it is one of the brightest comets of the last century.
The phenomenon of this discovery lies in the fact that at the end of the 90s the comet was observed without special apparatus for ten months, which in itself cannot but surprise.
The shell of the solid core of a celestial body is rather inhomogeneous. Iced areas of unmixed gases are connected with carbon monoxide and other natural elements. Finding minerals that are characteristic of the structure earth's crust, and some meteorite formations once again confirm that the Hale-Bop comet originated within our system.
The influence of comets on the life of the planet Earth
There are many hypotheses and assumptions about this relationship. There are some comparisons that are sensational.
The Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull began its active and destructive two-year activity, which surprised many scientists of that time. This happened almost immediately after famous emperor Bonaparte saw a comet. Perhaps this is a coincidence, but there are other factors that make you wonder.
The previously described comet Halley strangely affected the activity of such volcanoes as Ruiz (Colombia), Taal (Philippines), Katmai (Alaska). The impact from this comet was felt by people living near the Cossuin volcano (Nicaragua), which began one of the most destructive activities of the millennium.
Comet Encke caused the most powerful eruption of Krakatoa volcano. All this may depend on solar activity and the activity of comets, which provoke some nuclear reactions when they approach our planet.
Comet impacts are quite rare. However, some experts believe that Tunguska meteorite applies to such bodies. As arguments, they cite the following facts:
- A couple of days before the catastrophe, the appearance of dawns was observed, which, with their diversity, testified to an anomaly.
- The emergence of such a phenomenon as white nights in places unusual for it immediately after the fall of a celestial body.
- The absence of such an indicator of meteoriticity as the presence solid this configuration.
What a comet looks like - look at the video:
The comets of the solar system are a fascinating topic and require further study. Scientists all over the world, engaged in space exploration, are trying to unravel the mysteries that these celestial bodies of amazing beauty and power carry.
