Coma (comet)
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The coma is the nebulous envelope around the nucleus of a comet, formed when the comet passes near the Sun in its highly elliptical orbit. As the comet warms, parts of it sublimate; this gives a comet
Structure of Comet Holmes in infrared, as seen by an infrared space telescope
Comet 17P/Holmes, 2007/11/02
Tempel 1 in X-ray light by Chandra
Artificially colored far-ultraviolet image (with film) of Comet Kohoutek (Skylab, 1973)
Comet nucleus
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The nucleus is the solid, central part of a comet, formerly termed a dirty snowball or an icy dirtball. A cometary nucleus is composed of rock, dust, and frozen gases. When heated by the Sun, the gase
The nucleus of Comet Tempel 1
Tempel 1 and Hartley 2 compared
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) – emitting carbon gas
Surface of the nucleus of Comet 67P from 10 km away as seen by Rosetta spacecraft