There is a telescope in space that circles around the Earth called the Hubble Space Telescope.

What is a Comet?

A comet is a body of dust and ice that travels around the Sun. Astronomers believe there are millions of comets traveling through space. When a comet comes close to the sun, the heat from the sun melts some of the ice in the comet which makes a huge cloud of dust and gas. This streams into a long tail which can sometimes be seen in the night sky. A famous comet is named Halley's comet, named after Edmund Halley. Halley's comet comes close to the sun once every 76 years.

A comet consists of the following parts:

• nucleus - a comet's distinct center
• coma - a hazy cloud of gas and dust that surrounds the nucleus (The comet head consists of both the nucleus and coma.)
• tail - the coma, pushed by radiation pressure and solar wind away from the nucleus

Some comets take thousands of years to go around the sun once.

Return to the Space

Did you know?

The first woman that traveled into space was Valentina Tereshkova, a soviet cosmonaut.

A space shuttle takes astronauts to and from the Space Station.

A space probe is a machine that explores space and sends information back to the Earth.

The sun is at the center of the solar system.