Structure and Composition

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

The only permanent part of a comet is its solid nucleus, or core. It is typically very dark, irregularly shaped, and several miles in diameter. The nucleus is often described as a “dirty snowball” because it consists of ice mixed with large amounts of fine, sooty dust particles. Some comets have more dust than ice. The ice in a comet is mainly frozen water, with smaller amounts of frozen carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane,…

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Orbits and Sources

Spacecraft Exploration

Additional Reading