um comets are icy bodies of frozen gases
rocks and dust left over from the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago
when comets approach close to the sun a fuzzy cloud of gas and dust called a coma is formed
oh
the scientists agree that the water or at least most of the water on earth came from comets
scientists believe it is highly unlikely that life in the form of biological cells began
in comets however there is now direct evidence that some of the
so-called chemical building blocks of life organic molecules can be found in comets
because comets have changed very little in the solar system's 4.6 billion year history
they are among the most primitive bodies scientists can study
an enormous comet is due to fly past our planet next month and it should be visible throughout the
summer for those with access to a small telescope the comet see 2017 k2 was spotted in 2017
using the pan stars telescope in hawaii followed by a hubble telescope observation that same year
five years on the comet is much closer to us and our star
and will glide past earth in just a few weeks
the term near here is relative since the comet will still be further away from us
than the planet mars this means it's unlikely that the comet will be visible to the naked eye
but a small telescope should spot the large ice ball
the current number of known comets is 3743
according to nasa while there are tens of thousands of known near-earth asteroids
you've got speed john glenn
nasa's psyche mission is very important no spacecraft has ever visited an asteroid like
16 psyche which is thought to be the exposed core of a demolished planet
the mission is expected to provide important insights into planetary formation
we will go into four concentrically smaller orbits
to collect the necessary measurements that we need from the three primary instruments the
payloads consists of a couple of cameras to take pictures of psyche also a gamma ray and neutron
spectrometer which will allow us to measure the elemental composition of the surface of psyche