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physical object > natural object > celestial body > comet > Halley's comet |
Halley's comet comparison table |
Subject | has definition | is a kind of | is an instance of |
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comet | A diffuse body of gas and solid particles (such as CN, C2, NH3, and OH), which orbits the Sun. The orbit is usually highly elliptical or even parabolic (average perihelion distance less than 1 AU; average aphelion distance, roughly 104 AU). Comets are unstable bodies with masses on the order of 1018 g whose average lifetime is about 100 perihelion passages. Periodic comets comprise only about 4% of all known comets. Comets are obviously related in some manner to meteors, but no meteorites from a comet have ever been recovered. Observations of comets Bennett and Kohoutek have established that a comet is surrounded by a vast hydrogen halo. | celestial body | |
Halley's comet | Probably the best known of all comets. Its orbit was computed by Edmund Halley in 1704, at which time he predicted that the bright comet of 1682 would return in 1758 (Halley died in 1742, before he could see his prediction verified). Records of Halley's comet (a = 17.8 AU, e = 0.967, i = 162°.3, P = 76.2 yr perihelion distance 0.587 AU) have been traced back to 240 B.C. Last appearance 1910, next appearance 1986. | comet |
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