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...

radiation and the outstreaming solar wind plasma acting upon the nucleus of the comet. Comet nuclei range from a few hundred meters to tens of kilometers...

became the first comet to be observed in detail by spacecraft, providing the first observational data on the structure of a comet nucleus and the mechanism...

massive nucleus size. This is twice as long as the Great Comet of 1811, the previous record holder. Accordingly, Hale–Bopp was dubbed the great comet of 1997...

approached Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Rosetta's Philae lander successfully made the first soft landing on a comet nucleus when it touched down on Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko...

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;...

(232 million km) on 2 June 2024. The comet is expected to brighten to about apparent magnitude 4.5. The comet nucleus is estimated to be around 30 km in...

(3.3 AU; 310 million mi) from the nucleus, showing that Hyakutake had the longest tail known for a comet. The comet was discovered on 30 January 1996...

first trek into the inner Solar System. Its nucleus has an estimated average radius of 2.1 km (1.3 mi). The comet was discovered on 18 March 1973 by Czech...

may also refer to: Active galactic nucleus in astronomy Comet nucleus, the solid, central part of a comet Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic...

lander, Philae, landed on the comet's surface on 12 November 2014, becoming the first spacecraft to land on a comet nucleus. On 30 September 2016, the Rosetta...

hydrogen and methane in the comet nucleus have evaporated away, all that remains is an inert rock or rubble pile. A comet may go through a transition...

for nearly one third of all comets. Most of these objects vaporize during their close approach, but a comet with a nucleus radius larger than 2–3 km is...

nucleus of Encke's Comet is 4.8 km. As its official designation implies, Encke's Comet was the first periodic comet discovered after Halley's Comet (designated...

Philae achieved the first-ever "soft" (nondestructive) landing on a comet nucleus, although the lander's final, uncontrolled touchdown left it in a non-optimal...

viewed from Earth, the comet and the Sun were separated by only a few arcminutes. Observations indicated that the comet's nucleus began to break apart near...

larger than the Sun. The comet's nucleus was later estimated at 30–40 km in diameter. In many ways the comet was quite similar to Comet Hale–Bopp: it became...

Probe had captured an image of the comet, from which astronomers also estimated the diameter of the comet nucleus at approximately 5 km (3 mi). Later...

The Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) was a NASA Discovery-class space probe that failed shortly after its July 2002 launch. It was the only Discovery mission...

this to occur are: a large and active nucleus, a close approach to the Sun, and a close approach to the Earth. A comet fulfilling all three of these criteria...

distance at which a comet has been discovered. With a nucleus diameter of at least 120 km (75 mi), it is the largest Oort cloud comet known. It is approaching...

a comet approaches the inner Solar System, solar radiation causes the volatile materials within the comet to vaporize and stream out of the nucleus, carrying...

Comets (DIXI) mission used the Deep Impact spacecraft for a flyby mission to a second comet, Hartley 2. The goal was to take pictures of its nucleus to...

lost. Comets can also run out of volatiles. Eventually most of the volatile material contained in a comet nucleus evaporates away, and the comet becomes...

COmet Rendezvous, Sample Acquisition, Investigation, and Return (CORSAIR) is a concept mission to return comet nucleus samples to Earth for detailed analysis...

announcement of opportunity was limited to six mission themes: Comet Surface Sample Return - a comet nucleus lander and sample return mission Lunar South Pole Sample...

spacecraft to visit a comet, passing through the plasma tail of comet Giacobini-Zinner within about 7,800 km (4,800 mi) of the nucleus on 11 September 1985...

approach of the comet, allow for impacts on Mars, its moons, and orbiting spacecraft. Dust particles ejected from the nucleus of the comet, at more than...

CONSERT (COmet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radiowave Transmission) is a scientific experiment on board the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission...

Comet Nucleus Dust and Organics Return (CONDOR) is a mission concept to retrieve a sample from comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko to test ideas regarding...