In Depth | 1P Halley – NASA Solar System Exploration Until the time of English astronomer Edmond Halley (1656-1742), comets were believed to make only one pass through the solar system But in 1705, Halley used Isaac Newton's theories of gravitation and planetary motions to compute the orbits of several comets
Asteroids, Comets Meteors - NASA Solar System Exploration Our solar system’s small bodies – asteroids, comets, and meteors – pack big surprises These chunks of rock, ice, and metal are leftovers from the formation of our solar system 4 6 billion years ago
In Depth | Our Solar System – NASA Solar System Exploration Our solar system consists of our star, the Sun, and everything bound to it by gravity – the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; dwarf planets such as Pluto; dozens of moons; and millions of asteroids, comets, and meteoroids
In Depth | Perseids – NASA Solar System Exploration When comets come around the Sun, they leave a dusty trail behind them Every year Earth passes through these debris trails, which allows the bits to collide with our atmosphere and disintegrate to create fiery and colorful streaks in the sky
In Depth | Kuiper Belt – NASA Solar System Exploration Researchers have found that some near-Earth asteroids are actually burned-out comets, and most of them would have started out in the Kuiper Belt Many comets crash into the Sun or the planets
In Depth | Oumuamua – NASA Solar System Exploration The first known interstellar object to visit our solar system, 1I 2017 U1 ‘Oumuamua, was discovered Oct 19, 2017 by the University of Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS1 telescope, funded by NASA’s Near-Earth Object Observations (NEOO) Program, which finds and tracks asteroids and comets in Earth’s neighborhood
Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud - NASA Solar System Exploration In 1950, astronomer Jan Oort proposed that certain comets come from a vast, extremely distant spherical shell of icy bodies surrounding the solar system This giant swarm of objects, now named the Oort Cloud, occupies space at a distance between 5,000 and 100,000 astronomical units
C 1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) - NASA Solar System Exploration Comets are usually named for their discoverer (s) or for the name of the observatory telescope used in the discovery Since both Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp discovered this comet it is named for them
In Depth | 19P Borrelly – NASA Solar System Exploration Comets are usually named for their discoverer (s) or for the name of the observatory or telescope used in the discovery Since Alphonse Borrelly discovered this comet, it is named after him