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Artist's impression of a comet's surface
Comet surface. Artwork of the surface of a comet 20 minutes before it collides with the Earth. Vapours are rising from the comet as it is heated by the Sun. Comets are balls of ice and dust which are a few kilometres (km) across & have eccentric orbits around the Sun. Some of the comet vaporises when it passes near the Sun. The gas and dust are blown away from the comet by the solar wind, a stream of charged particles coming from the Sun. The gas and dust form a tail which can be millions of km long. The tail always extends away from the Sun, whatever direction the comet is travelling. It is a statistical certainty that the Earth will be hit by a comet at some point in the future.
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