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- In Depth | 1P Halley – NASA Solar System Exploration
Comet Halley moves backward (opposite to Earth's motion) around the Sun in a plane tilted 18 degrees to that of the Earth's orbit Halley's backward, or retrograde, motion is unusual among short-period comets, as its greatest distance from the Sun (aphelion) is beyond the orbit of Neptune
- In Depth | 2P Encke – NASA Solar System Exploration
Comet 2P Encke is a small comet Its nucleus measures approximately 2 98 miles (4 8 kilometers) in diameter, which is about a third of the size of the object hypothesized to have led to the demise of the dinosaurs
- Asteroids, Comets Meteors - NASA Solar System Exploration
Asteroids and comets – and the meteors that sometimes come from them – are leftovers from the formation of our solar system 4 6 billion years ago
- In Depth | Perseids – NASA Solar System Exploration
The Comet The pieces of space debris that interact with our atmosphere to create the Perseids originate from comet 109P Swift-Tuttle Swift-Tuttle takes 133 years to orbit the Sun once It was Giovanni Schiaparelli who realized in 1865 that this comet was the source of the Perseids Comet Swift-Tuttle last visited the inner solar system in 1992
- Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 - NASA Solar System Exploration
When comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was discovered in 1993, it already had been torn into more than 20 pieces traveling around Jupiter in a two-year orbit Further observations revealed the comet (believed to be a single body at the time) had made a close approach to Jupiter in July 1992 and had been torn apart by tidal forces resulting from the planet
- C 1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) - NASA Solar System Exploration
Also called the Great Comet of 1997, comet C 1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) is a large comet with a nucleus measuring approximately 37 miles (60 kilometers) in diameter This is about five times the size of the object hypothesized to have led to the demise of the dinosaurs
- Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud - NASA Solar System Exploration
Occasionally, giant molecular clouds, stars passing nearby, or tidal interactions with the Milky Way’s disc disturb the orbit of one of these bodies in the outer region of the Oort Cloud, causing the object to streak into the inner solar system as a so-called long-period comet
- In Depth | Oumuamua – NASA Solar System Exploration
While originally classified as a comet, observations revealed no signs of cometary activity after it slingshotted past the Sun on Sept 9, 2017 at a blistering speed of 196,000 miles per hour (87 3 kilometers per second)
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