LMR-062 · Planets
Comets
Dirty snowballs from the edge of the solar system, on million-year orbits.
§ A first look
§ Depths
Six ways into the same idea — from bedtime story to chalkboard. No order required.
L1 · Crayon
Told like a bedtime story.
For a curious 10-year-old. No jargon. Just a picture in your head.
A comet is basically a giant dirty snowball drifting through space. Most of the time, comets live way out in the cold parts of our solar system, far from the Sun, doing absolutely nothing. Sometimes one of them takes a slow swing close to the Sun, and as it warms up, the icy parts turn straight into gas and shoot off a long glowing tail that streams behind it for millions of kilometres. It looks like a star with a tail, smudged across the sky for weeks. People used to think comets were warnings from the gods. They are actually mostly snow and dust and a little disappointment.
§ Strange but true
- 01They are dirty snowballs older than the planets — frozen archives of the early solar system.
- 02A comet's tail always points away from the Sun, not behind its motion. Solar wind sweeps it.
- 03Halley's Comet returns every 76 years. Mark Twain was born and died on its visits — by his own prediction.
§ From the field journal
Comets
"Dirty snowballs from the edge of the solar system, on million-year orbits."
— observed, sketched, not yet fully understood.
§ Nearby