Cometa

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/cometa

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?Volatile ices (water, CO2, CH4, NH3), dust, and silicate grains
2. What is the primary reservoirs?Kuiper Belt (short-period comets) and Oort Cloud (long-period comets)
3. What is a comet?A comet is an icy snowball made of water, gases, dust, and rocks, often called a dirty snowball. When it gets close to the Sun, it creates a bright cloud and tails that shine in the sky.
4. Why do comets have tails?The Sun heats the comet, turning ice into gas. The gas and dust are pushed away by the Sun’s light and wind, forming a dust tail and an ion tail that point away from the Sun.

Sublimation: The process where a solid changes directly into a gas without becoming a liquid first.
Solar Nebula: The cloud of gas and dust from which the Sun and planets formed.
Planetesimal: Small celestial bodies that are thought to have formed from the accretion of dust and gas in the early solar system.