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Comets are cosmic, icy wanderers left over from the formation of the solar system.
A kind of space snowballs, the size of a small city. They include frozen gas, which is formed as a result of explosions on stars, and metal particles, the remains of steroids, meteorites, the same comets, frozen liquid.
Approaching the Sun, cosmic bodies begin to collapse due to the released elements and form a giant tail, millions of kilometers long; the tail is located in the opposite direction from the Sun, under the influence of the “solar wind”.
“These hermits are born” behind the planet Neptune, in the comet belt. Short-period planets are those that make 200 revolution around the Sun in 1 years.
Long-period comets are those that come from the Horta cloud, a hypothetical spherical region that has been calculated but not confirmed. These guests only once in 30 million years are able to turn around the Sun.
There are currently 3 comets discovered, here are 572 most famous of them.
10 Comet Hiakutawe
- Official name: C/1996 B2.
- Opening date: 30th of January 1996
- Discoverer: Yuji Hyakutake (Japan).
It got its other name, “The Big Comet of 1996”, because its passage through the night sky could be seen without the use of astronomical instruments.
It is delightful that a Japanese astronomer discovered a celestial body a few months before its approach to the earth. Scientists’ calculations showed that the comet on March 25, 1996 will pass very close to the Earth at a distance of 15,2 million kilometers.
Residents of the northern hemisphere could observe the comet throughout the night.
It is noteworthy that the comet last visited the solar system 17 years ago. And he will return, completely slowly, after 000 years.
9. Humason’s comet
- Official name: S/1961 R1.
- Opening date: 1 September 1961 year.
- Discoverer: Milton Humason (USA).
The period of revolution around the Sun is 2940 years. Its core is approximately 40 kilometers.
She is gigantic. Its tail has a length of 748 million km.
In June 2010, the inhabitants of the Northern Hemisphere could see this beauty in the sky.
8. Comet Morehouse
- Official name: S/1908 R1.
- Opening date: 1908 year
- Discoverer: D. Morehouse (USA).
The then famous spectral analysis applied at that time established that the comet has a head and flows into the tail through the narrowing of the shells.
What was startling was the discovery that the tail is also unusual. It is shaped like rays-spokes, closing and opening like an umbrella, which in turn made it possible to form several tails.
Observation of the comet revealed the following feature. Tails were able to break and after some time grew again. This unique and only phenomenon could not be seen in the study of other comets.
7. Comet Ikea–Seki
- Official name: C/1965 C1.
- Opening date: 18 September 1965 years
- Discoverers: Kaoru Ikeya and Tsutomi Seki (Japan).
Independently of each other, amateur astronomers Kaoru Ikei and Tsutomi Seki are the discoverers of this interesting comet. This event took place on September 18, 1965.
The comet belongs to the ice monsters, “touching the corona of the Sun”, that is, it passes through its outer layers at a distance of 500 thousand kilometers.
Observers indeed recorded a bright comet near the Sun. According to the descriptions, it was even brighter than the Sun itself.
There is an opinion that the discovered comet is one of Kreutz’s near-solar comets, part of a giant comet that began to break up when passing near the Sun since 1106.
6. Comet Vesta
- Official name: S/1975 V1.
- Opening date: 25 August 1975 year
- Discoverers: Richard West (Denmark).
The opening was photographically recorded. Rare guest of the universe. It completes one revolution around the sun once every 250 years. It is because of its huge orbital period that it came to the attention of scientists.
Although its brightness is not inferior to the planet Jupiter, which could be observed even during the day. And the cosmic beauty of a long-period comet is still waiting to be described.
Its tail covered 30 degrees of the sky in the form of a triangle. Data have been obtained that, passing through the point of the orbit closest to the Sun, the comet’s nucleus broke up into four fragments.
Since little has been written and spoken about it, unfortunately, not many people could see its current approach to the Earth.
5. Comet De Cheso
- Official name: –
- Opening date: 9 декабря 1743 года
- Discoverers: De Chez (France) and Klinberg (USA).
Two discoverers De Chez from Lausagne, in France, on December 13, 1943 and a little earlier Klinberg from Harlem on December 9, 1743, discovered this brightest comet independent of each other.
Her peculiarity lies in the fact that she was able to give birth to as many as eleven tails. This comet belongs to the long-period guests.
Due to the fact that the comet paid its respects to earthlings in 1743, and the official version of astronomical discoveries was completed in 1725, this cosmic body does not have an official number.
4. Comet Bennetta
- Official name: C/1969 Y1.
- Opening date: December 28 1969 year.
- Discoverer: John Bennet (South Africa).
It is noteworthy that a sparkling tail was separated from the huge core, directed perpendicular to the Earth’s orbit.
The intense glow produced a hydrogen cloud surrounding the head and tail of the comet, extending for 13 million kilometers. The period of revolution around the Sun is 1 years.
3. Comet McNott
- Official name: C/2006 P1.
- Opening date: 7 August 2006 year.
- Discoverer: Robert McNaught (Australia).
An open comet is long-period. This is the brightest comet in the last 40 years.
Residents of the Southern Hemisphere in 2007 could observe it everywhere, without special magnification.
The maximum approach to the Earth’s orbit was 122 million kilometers and occurred on January 672, 15.
2. Comet Jacobine – Zinnera
- Official names: P/1900 Y1 и P/1913 U1.
- Opening date: 1900 year.
- Discoverer: Michel Giacobini (France).
Discovered by Michel Giacobini in 1900. In 1913, it was described by Ernest Zinner, after the comet survived 2 approaches to the Sun.
The maximum approach to the star was 155,284 million kilometers. And the entire period of revolution around the Sun is 6,52 years. On September 13, 2018, the comet approached the Earth’s orbit at 58 million kilometers.
Its passage caused quite a cosmic show in the form of the Dracoinid meteor shower. From the constellation of the Dragon, small and large meteorites began to pour, which flashed in the night sky like yellow and red strokes. The expected activity is 5–15 meteorites per hour.
1. Comet Halley – Boppa
- Official name: C/1995 O1.
- Opening date: July 23 1995 year.
- Discoverers: Alan Hale and Thomas Boppom (USA).
This long period comet was discovered on July 23, 1995 by Alain Hale and Thomas Bopp, two independent observers.
The sparkling, beautifully breathtaking wonder could be observed for 18 months. The core is up to 90 kilometers across. The comet’s tail stretched for 50 million kilometers.
At the time of discovery, the comet was at a distance of 1077,12 million kilometers from the Sun. The comet approached the Earth at the minimum short distance, which is equal to 196 million kilometers.
It is currently rapidly receding, being very far beyond the orbit of Uranus. Her return is expected no earlier than 4.