Last modified on 27 June 2003.
Encyclopædia Galactica
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Comet
A small body of ice and dust orbiting the Sun; size approximately one
kilometre. A large number of comets orbit the Sun outside planetary
orbits in the Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt. Every year gravitational
disturbances flung several tens of comets into inner Solar System,
where warmth melts a tail for them. The tail is always blown away
from the Sun because of solar wind.
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Created by
Rami T. F. Rekola