Activity Tile: FAMOUS COMET

Objectives: (1) Determine some of the well-known comets, (2) Describe these well-known comets with their unique
characteristics, and (3) Realize the role of comets in helping scientist understand the origin of water on Earth.

TOP 10 FAMOUS COMETS:

1. Halley’s Comet - the most famous of all comets. British astronomer Edmund Halley was the first to realize that
comets are periodic, after observing it in 1682 and tallying it to records of two previous comet appearances. He
correctly predicted it would return in 1757. Halley’s Comet, which is 8 kilometres (5 miles) wide and 16 km (10
miles) long, travels around the Sun every 75 to 76 years in an elongated orbit. It last passed close to Earth in February
1986.

2. Shoemaker Levy-9 - distinguished itself by breaking into 21 pieces under the stresses of Jupiter’s gravity in 1992
and then slamming in succession into the giant planet in 1994. The impact of one fragment – around 3 km across – is
said to have yielded an explosion and fireball equivalent to 6 million megatonnes of TNT. The plume reached 22,000
km (13,700 miles) above the cloud tops.

3. Hyakutake - an icy-blue blob with a faint gas tail created the most spectacular comet display for 20 years
as it passed just 15 million kilometres (9.3 million miles) from Earth in March 1996. It was the closest the comet had
come to the Sun in 9000 years.

4. Hale Bopp - made its closest approach to Earth for 4000 years in January 1997, is much larger and more spectacular
than Halley’s comet, has a nucleus up to 40 km (24 miles) in diameter and could be viewed from Earth with the naked
eye.

5. Comet Borrelly - was only the second to be spied close-up by a spacecraft. NASA’s Deep Space 1 paid a visit in
2001 and gave researchers a detailed glimpse of the comet’s pitch black core. Its snapshots revealed that the rocky
nucleus is shaped like a giant 8-kilometre-long bowling pin, and the entire comet is curiously lopsided. Borrelly is
believed to originate in an icy cloud of rocks beyond Neptune called the Kuiper Belt.

Activity Tile: FAMOUS COMET

Objectives: (1) Determine some of the well-known comets, (2) Describe these well-known comets with their unique
characteristics, and (3) Realize the role of comets in helping scientist understand the origin of water on Earth.

TOP 10 FAMOUS COMETS:

1. Halley’s Comet - the most famous of all comets. British astronomer Edmund Halley was the first to realize that
comets are periodic, after observing it in 1682 and tallying it to records of two previous comet appearances. He
correctly predicted it would return in 1757. Halley’s Comet, which is 8 kilometres (5 miles) wide and 16 km (10
miles) long, travels around the Sun every 75 to 76 years in an elongated orbit. It last passed close to Earth in February
1986.

2. Shoemaker Levy-9 - distinguished itself by breaking into 21 pieces under the stresses of Jupiter’s gravity in 1992
and then slamming in succession into the giant planet in 1994. The impact of one fragment – around 3 km across – is
said to have yielded an explosion and fireball equivalent to 6 million megatonnes of TNT. The plume reached 22,000
km (13,700 miles) above the cloud tops.

3. Hyakutake - an icy-blue blob with a faint gas tail created the most spectacular comet display for 20 years
as it passed just 15 million kilometres (9.3 million miles) from Earth in March 1996. It was the closest the comet had
come to the Sun in 9000 years.

4. Hale Bopp - made its closest approach to Earth for 4000 years in January 1997, is much larger and more spectacular
than Halley’s comet, has a nucleus up to 40 km (24 miles) in diameter and could be viewed from Earth with the naked
eye.

5. Comet Borrelly - was only the second to be spied close-up by a spacecraft. NASA’s Deep Space 1 paid a visit in
2001 and gave researchers a detailed glimpse of the comet’s pitch black core. Its snapshots revealed that the rocky
nucleus is shaped like a giant 8-kilometre-long bowling pin, and the entire comet is curiously lopsided. Borrelly is
believed to originate in an icy cloud of rocks beyond Neptune called the Kuiper Belt.
6. Comet Encke - second comet discovered to be periodic, by German Astronomer Johann Franz Encke in 1819. The
comet is also the parent body of the annual Taurid meteor shower in October and November. It is a relatively old
comet that now gives off little gas.

7. Tempel-Tuttel - progenitor of the annual Leonid meteor shower. Thousands of shooting stars streak across the
night sky every November, as the Earth passes through the dust particles and rocky meteoroids haphazardly shed by
the comet. Astronomers have predicted that these may have been the last major Leonid storms for up to 30 years
because the comet melts and sheds matter unevenly on its journey through the solar system, and we may not pass
through another dense cloud of debris for some time.

8. Comet Wild 2 - visited by NASA’s Stardust in January 2004 and collected the first ever sample of dust particles to
be taken from a comet’s wake. Stardust returned to Earth with its precious cargo in January 2006 and provided insight
into the conditions under which Wild 2 – and the solar system – formed, 4.5 billion years in the Kuiper belt.

9. Comet Tempel 1 - is 6 km in size and hurtles along at 10 km (6 miles) per second. Its orbit has been changed by the
gravity of Jupiter since it was discovered in 1867, and it now orbits the Sun every 5 to 6 years.

10. Churyumov-Gerasimenko - thought to be around five kilometres across and currently orbits the sun about every
6.6 years. Its orbit used to be much larger, but interactions with Jupiter’s gravity since 1840 have knocked it into a
much smaller orbit.

Exercise Questions:
1. What are comets?
2. How are they different from other celestial bodies?
3. What makes up a comet?
4. Which of the following comets would you like to see in the future? Why?

6. Comet Encke - second comet discovered to be periodic, by German Astronomer Johann Franz Encke in 1819. The
comet is also the parent body of the annual Taurid meteor shower in October and November. It is a relatively old
comet that now gives off little gas.

7. Tempel-Tuttel - progenitor of the annual Leonid meteor shower. Thousands of shooting stars streak across the
night sky every November, as the Earth passes through the dust particles and rocky meteoroids haphazardly shed by
the comet. Astronomers have predicted that these may have been the last major Leonid storms for up to 30 years
because the comet melts and sheds matter unevenly on its journey through the solar system, and we may not pass
through another dense cloud of debris for some time.

8. Comet Wild 2 - visited by NASA’s Stardust in January 2004 and collected the first ever sample of dust particles to
be taken from a comet’s wake. Stardust returned to Earth with its precious cargo in January 2006 and provided insight
into the conditions under which Wild 2 – and the solar system – formed, 4.5 billion years in the Kuiper belt.

9. Comet Tempel 1 - is 6 km in size and hurtles along at 10 km (6 miles) per second. Its orbit has been changed by the
gravity of Jupiter since it was discovered in 1867, and it now orbits the Sun every 5 to 6 years.

10. Churyumov-Gerasimenko - thought to be around five kilometres across and currently orbits the sun about every
6.6 years. Its orbit used to be much larger, but interactions with Jupiter’s gravity since 1840 have knocked it into a
much smaller orbit.

Exercise Questions:
1. What are comets?
2. How are they different from other celestial bodies?
3. What makes up a comet?
4. Which of the following comets would you like to see in the future? Why?