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All Comets

Comet with a Sweeping Tail

Icy bodies that develop a visible coma and often a tail as they approach the Sun, split by orbital period into periodic comets, which return on a predictable cycle, and long-period comets, which take thousands of years or arrive from far beyond the planets. Belongs here: any body whose defining characteristic is this ice-driven outgassing, whatever its current distance from the Sun. Does not belong here: rocky bodies with no coma, grouped under Asteroids and Minor Planets, or distant icy bodies never observed to develop one, grouped under Trans-Neptunian and Outer Solar System Objects.

Facts
Comparison
Field Origin Era
1705 1
All Comets
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Sources
1. Wikipedia: Halley's Comet
Wikimedia FoundationHalley's Comet, lead section, 1705 periodicity sentence
Quote, Halley's Comet, lead section, 1705 periodicity sentence
it was not until 1705 that the English astronomer Edmond Halley understood that these appearances were re-appearances of the same comet.
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