Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Where Do Comets Come From?


The comets we see from Earth come from the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. The Kuiper Belt is a massive belt of comets and rocky debris in space that begins just outside the orbit of Neptune and extends to approximately fifty-five Astronomical Units from the Sun. Many objects in the Kuiper belt consist of a mixture of frozen water/ammonia/methane and rock. The Oort cloud could have as many as a trillion comets and encompasses most of the solar system. Both regions are remnants of the nebula from which the solar system was formed. It is interesting to note that the tails of a comet are only visible when it passes nearby the Sun. As these "dirty snowballs" heat up and sublimate, producing a tail of gas they points away from the Sun and tail of dust that curves along with the orbital path of the comet. Based on current scientific evidence, it is observed that comets can come from any direction in space and usually have very high orbital eccentricity.

89 comments:

  1. wow thanks for the info. that pic looks amazing

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  2. so we are basically encircled by rocks.../frozen water.

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  3. A nice short and sweet but equally apt description of comets. Good job, Mike.

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  4. Thanks for the info, astronomy is always fascinating

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  5. cool post. i learned something!

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  6. I love this kind if stuff. I once watched 2 scientists make a Comet in a black bin bag and it wes really impressive. Lots of crackling and hissing lol.

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  7. I know all this ^_^

    but fucking, gorgeous photo!!

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  8. Whats your favorite thing about space?
    Mine is space.. :]

    Anyway, nice post. I learned something toay.. :]

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  9. I love everything about space. Very nice blog.

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  10. You learn something new every day on blogger :) And that picture is gorgeous! Following :)

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  11. I thought comets came from the bug planet. "Kill 'em all!!" -Johnny Rico

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  12. Great info, I didn't know anything about it.

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  13. interesting. ive always wondered myself!

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  14. I'm always fascinated by space. It must be wonderful to float in space, without a care in the world...

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  15. I haven't seen a comet in ages..

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  16. I remember reading about this years ago. Nice to read about it again

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  17. Bloody wonderful picture there, mate. And some nice info to go along with it :)

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  18. Who knows - space is really some amazing stuff though.

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  19. space, how you never stop amazing

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  20. I know where meteorite are from ... space

    Nice pic but how do you see earth from earth

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  21. cool! i didn't know we had a comet belt in our solar system. kind of reminds me of the asteroid belt that's been protecting our inner solar system all these years

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  22. Interesting. I wonder how long comets can go on for before burning out. Great picture too! Following for more

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  23. Great info, I truly hope to see a comet personally in my life.

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  24. I just hope we can track these things well enough to spot the dangerous ones before it's too late to do anything.

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  25. suddenly, out of nowhere..

    a comet crashes into the earth

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  26. this blog is very good mmmm

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  27. Beautiful picture and nice facts about the universe, Its pretty amazing out there and comets are so wonderous

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  28. They come from God, who is bored and throw us rocks.

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  29. Diddnt know this about comets! very interesting ;D

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  30. A trillion comets sounds daunting.

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  31. Great picture, also i love background design! i will watch your posts.

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  32. It's kinda scary if you think we're surrounded by those things.

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  33. nice post but the image is awesome and terrific

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  34. wow, I love astrology, thanks dude!

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  35. i remember seeing hale bopp when i was a kid. all sorts of epic.

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  36. Learned this in astronomy last year. It's insane how big places like the Oort cloud are. Even if the earth was to pass through it, the chances of hitting an asteroid would be so little. Yet there's millions of asteroids in it

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  37. wow, I love ASTRONOMY, thanks dude!

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  38. I love space, it makes me wonder and wonder!

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  39. that pic is absolutely incredible =)

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  40. Interesting article and great picture! followed!

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  41. i didnt know that!

    im such a space-lover, everything in space is awesome :D

    thanks for sharing ^^

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  42. Excellent information, I really hope to see a comet someday.

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  43. Interesting. I always knew an Oort cloud existed but I never knew what it was, exactly.

    Btw, the gopher in the previous posts is CUTE. I've never seen one outside of Winnie the Pooh. ;)

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  44. I heard comets are ejected from Uranus on a daily basis. All joking aside, nice post. :D

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  45. well i be damned i never did stop to think where do Comets come from. Thx man.

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  46. Comets? They come from space.
    Qualified genius.

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  47. great infomation man, thats all i needed to know about comets :D

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  48. Comments are probably galaxy eating babies excrements

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  49. astronomy has always boggled my mind

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  50. more stuff like this! great read, followed!

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  51. Never crossed my mind to find out where they come from.. but thanks for the info!

    btw like your blog

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  52. Thank you for the information, I like comets

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  53. that's pretty cool, I love stuff I like this. looking at pictures of planets and reading about them

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  54. Necroticism comment is hilarious!!!!

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  55. I though God made them! Beautiful picture.

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  56. very interesting...the space is just amazing

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  57. im sure they come from the same place magnets come from

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  58. Nice picture! also I love your bg!

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  59. Earth was almost hit by a comet last night >_>

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  60. BEautiful picture, and I always assumed comets just came from anywhere, guess not!

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  61. I want to live to see Halley's comet again... Awesome blog by the way, the design looks amazing.

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  62. Extremely interested in Space and the Kuiper Belt is a very interesting but less discussed part of our Solar System. Voyager 1 is currently floating through the Kuiper Belt as we speak. The furthest man man object from Earth.

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  63. We should send a probe to land on a comet and search it for life. It will be hard because its moving very fast, however I think we can do it!

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