Tails of Comet Garradd
With binoculars or a small telescope, the Comet Garradd, which was discovered back in 2009, will be passing through the constellation Hercules over the next few months. The comet sports several tails and has a green glow about it, so it should be interesting to observe in the nighttime sky. Additionally the comet is 2 A.U. (186,000,000 miles)away from us and is intrinsically large. Perhaps the Comet Garradd will be visible this coming stargaze Sunday night.
This article got me wondering, what are the differences between a comet and an asteroid? After doing a bit of research I have found a few of these differences. A comet is a celestial object believed to be composed primarily of frozen space dust and gases. A comet follows an orbit around a star and as it approaches a star it will melt, releasing its frozen space dust. On the other hand, a meteor does not follow an orbit. Also a meteor is not a meteor until it enters Earth's atmosphere - until then it is a meteoroid. I also found that there are other celestial objects that I did not account for until I finished reading, including the differences between asteroids, meteors, comets, and meteorites.
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