Solar System “Fluff” Pt. 2 The fluffier fluff.

Comets. Snowballs of DOOM!!!

Anatomy of a comet  Nucleus (1 – 100 km)  Coma (100,000 km)  Tails (1 – 500 million km)  Dust Tail  Ion Tail  Hydrogen Envelope (Cloud)  10 million – 100 million km

The Nucleus  Heart of the comet  Consists of:  Dust  Ice (H 2 O)  Other ices (CO 2, CH 4, NH 3, etc.)  Can appear VERY dark! (<10% reflectivity)

The Coma  Dense “Atmosphere” of materials surrounding nucleus.  Consists of vaporized materials from the nucleus as the comet approaches the sun  Comets have extremely low gravity  Cant keep the material close, or even hang on for long!  The Coma can be larger than the sun!

IonDust The Tails!  Gases from comet ionized by UV from sun  Magnetic field from solar wind pushes them back  Solar photons strike the material from the coma  This tail curves, due to the comets motion

 Halley’s

Trans-neptunian objects (TNO) ANY object that is part of the solar system and beyond the orbit of Neptune. Three subcategories Kuiper Belt Scattered Disc: Oort Cloud: All objects are primarily Icy, with frozen volatiles (methane, ammonia, etc.), some rock

The Kuiper Belt Consists of Objects from 30 – 50 A.U KBO = Kuiper Belt Object Hypothesized in 1930 Discovered in 1987 Over 100,000 KBOs larger than 100km Most are resonant with Neptune’s orbit

The Scattered Disc  Region primarily beyond the Kuiper Belt  Dynamic –  objects are not locked into resonance like KBOs  Most comets are believed to originate from this region  First designated in the late 90’s  Only very recently officially accepted

A sampling  more

The Oort cloud Farthest reaches of the solar system Objects up to 1 light year away (50,000 A.U.) Spherical in structure, instead of flat, disc shaped regions May have formed as a result of interactions with nearby stars (pulling objects out from the solar system)

Orbits of comets  HIGHLY elliptical

Hyakutake  360 million km tail

 Not a spaceship… Hale-Bopp