Comets: Practice Problem Solutions

1. Nucleus (solid center), coma (cloud around it), dust tail and ion tail.

2. Sunlight and the solar wind push the gas and dust away from the Sun.

3. Short-period comets from the Kuiper belt; long-period comets from the Oort cloud.

4. In 2061; the period is about 75-76 years.

5. He used Newton's laws to show that comets seen in 1531, 1607 and 1682 had similar orbits and were the same comet, and predicted it would return in 1758.

6. A comet leaves a trail of dust along its orbit; when Earth passes through it we see a meteor shower.

7. Fastest near the Sun, according to Kepler's second law (equal areas in equal times).