Comets – Snowballs
from Space
- Comets are mostly frozen gases (water,
methane, carbon dioxide, etc.) mixed with solid soot-like particles.
They come from the very cold outer reaches of the solar system.
When they get near the sun, the gases vaporize and form the beautiful
comet's tail.
Comet Hale-Bopp. Use 3D glasses, red lens left, blue/green lens
right.
- Jupiter's mighty gravity can profoundly
influence the fate of a comet.
- Click
here to see an animation
of how this affected the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet (0.93 MB).
- Click
here to see an animation
of pieces of the shattered comet striking Jupiter (0.64 MB).
- The comet left gigantic smudges the
size of Earth in Jupiter's atmosphere.
