Comet

High school (ages 12+)
Space & Astronomy

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/comet

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the nucleus composition?Primarily water ice, frozen gases (CO, CO2, NH3), dust, and rocky particles
2. What is the origin reservoirs?Kuiper Belt (short-period) and Oort Cloud (long-period)
3. What are comets made of?Comets are icy "dirty snowballs" made of water ice, frozen gases like carbon dioxide and ammonia, dust, and rocky particles. They also have a dark crust of organic material that protects the ice until the comet gets close to the Sun.
4. Why do comets have tails?When a comet approaches the Sun, the heat turns its ice into gas, creating a glowing cloud called a coma. Solar wind and light push the gas and dust away, forming a bright, blue ion tail and a curved dust tail.

Sublimation: The phase transition from solid to gas without passing through the liquid phase.
Solar Wind: A continuous outflow of charged particles from the Sun's corona.
Oort Cloud: A theoretical spherical shell of icy bodies far beyond the Kuiper Belt.
Kuiper Belt: A region of icy bodies located beyond the orbit of Neptune.