How are comets made?

We take a look at how these ‘dirty snowballs’ are made

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Comets are made from leftover material that made up the planets. Image Credit: NASA

Comets are made from leftover material that made up the planets. Image Credit: NASA

Asked by Jasmine Beck

It’s said that comets are made from the leftover material, namely lumps of leftover space debris, that formed the planets and make up the Solar System we know today.

The Solar System was made by a huge cloud of gas and dust, which collapsed some 4.6 billion years ago. Most of the cloud, which had flattened into a disc around a young Sun, clumped together to make the planets. However, some small lumps remained and became chunks of frozen gas and dust, living in the outer region of the Solar System where it’s cold enough to make the frozen ices that give comets their tails.

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