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Why do comets and meteorites appear unexpectedly?

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Each time a comet passes close to the sun, it loses more of its ice. Eventually, after many passes, the comet may no longer have enough material to form tails. Its surface will be covered by dark dust and it will look more like an asteroid. Comet 67P, the target of Rosetta spacecraft. read more

Some comets have definite periods which we have observed for decades. Some of them have very eccentric orbits. If our earlier generation hasn't documented such comets then we will not have idea about those and their arrival. read more

Mosaic of four images taken by Rosetta's navigation camera (NAVCAM) on 19 September 2014 at 28.6 km (17.8 mi) from the centre of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.The images used for this mosaic were taken in sequence as a 2×2 raster over an approximately 20 minute period, meaning that there is some motion of the spacecraft and rotation of the comet between the images. read more

Comets are asteroid-like objects which are composed of ice, dust and rocky particles; that's why they are also called 'dirty snowballs'. The sizes of their nuclei vary between a few hundred metres to tens of kilometres in diameter; their visible tails can extend to above 150 million km in length. read more

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Asteroids, Comets, and Meteors
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