COMETS
- A comet is an icy body that releases gas or dust.
- Comets travel around the sun in long, oval orbits.
- A comet consists of a solid nucleus (core) surrounded by a cloudy atmosphere called the coma and one or two tails.
- Astronomers classify comets according to how long they take to orbit the sun.
- Short-period comets need less than 200 years to complete one orbit, while long-period comets take 200 years or longer.
- Halley's comet which is visible from earth once in 76 years, was seen in about 8BC, and so some say that it was the bible's star of bethlehem.
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