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Description
Comets was described by Fred Whipple as nothing more than a dirty snowball that travels through space. Because of their size and
the great distances they travel, it is not easy to work out their journey path, some comets such as Halley, the path is known,
it travels out past Uranus before returning to the sun. Apart from their composition, ice and dust, they also have tails which
asteroids don't. They have been seen throughout history and probably the most famous appearance of a comet that has been
recorded is Halley Comet which appeared at the time of the Battle of Hastings. It's appearance has been noted and added to the
Bayeux Tapestry. The make-up of a comet is theorised as being dust and blocks of ice held together by the cold. A theory has
been put forward that life on Earth hitch-hiked on the back of a comet due to its make-up. This has been neither proved nor
disproved as far as I know. Recently due to the outbreak of the SARS virus, scientists are thinking about whether the so-called
Emerging Diseases have come from Comets as they pass-by. It is an interesting theory which could be worth looking into. Comets
take a highly elliptical path whereas planets are more circular. Although I don't have pictures of comets yet, I will be added them to
the relevent pages in the future.
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Orbital Period ( years ) |
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