the.com/comet
a dirty snowball flung sunward, growing a tail of pure cosmic exhibitionism.
means A small icy body that orbits the sun and, when it draws near, sheds gas and dust into a glowing head and a long streaming tail.
from From Greek 'kometes,' meaning 'long-haired,' from 'kome,' hair — the ancients saw that streaming tail and called it a 'long-haired star.' It traveled through Latin 'cometa' into the European languages, the original wig still attached.
- tail direction
- always points away from sun, never behind motion
- halley's return
- swings by every 76 years, missable in one life
- composition
- ice, dust, rock — leftover crumbs from planet-building
- tail length
- can stretch over 100 million kilometers
- ancient omens
- once feared as harbingers of kings dying
for instance
halley's comet — returns every 75-76 years, last appeared in 1986, next in 2061
comet hale-bopp — brightest comet of the 1990s, visible to naked eye in 1997, won't return for 2,533 years
comet neowise — brightest comet since 1997, widely visible in july 2020 across the northern hemisphere