Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Comet

I have not seen a comet. Falling stars yes.

artnframes

When I was young and a dreamer, I have made a wish to a falling star. It came true.

What's the difference between a comet and a falling star?

The word "comet" came to the English language through Latin cometes from the Greek word komē, meaning "hair of the head"; Aristotle first used the derivation komētēs to depict comets as "stars with hair." The astronomical symbol for comets accordingly consists of a disc with a hairlike tail.

Falling stars on the other hand are small, solid bodies that enter the Earth’s atmosphere as they travel through space. These stars are commonly called meteors. Meteors can enter the our atmosphere with a velocity that ranges from ten to seventy km/sec. These meteors can plunge into the atmosphere at velocities ranging from ten to seventy kilometers per second. Consequently, the friction that is created is great enough to cause the meteor to begin burning up which produces the light that we refer to as a falling star.

sources: wikipedia and eduscience

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