17

Given an image or animation of a body in space, the learner identifies it as a comet when (and only when) it is a frozen body of ice, dust, and rock that orbits the Sun (visible tail near the Sun; no tail when far from the Sun).

grade level
5
frames
16
  1. 01What is a comet made of?
  2. 02Why does this comet have a visible tail?
  3. 03What kind of space object are we looking at?
  4. 04Is this dark object a comet?
  5. 05Which statement best describes this object?
  6. 06What is this object?
  7. 07Why is Vesta considered an asteroid and not a comet?
  8. 08What kind of object is Mars?
  9. 09Based on its glowing tail, what is this object?
  10. 10What is this rocky object?
  11. 11What kind of object is this?
  12. 12What is this object?
  13. 13What is this dark, icy object?
  14. 14What is this massive spherical object?
  15. 15What is this spectacular object?
  16. 16Identify this space object.

Now look at this object. Because it is far from the Sun, it looks to us like a plain, dark chunk of rock and ice. It has no tail at all right now, but it is still a comet! The tail only appears when the comet gets close to the Sun.

A close-up image of a distant frozen comet nucleus. As you can see, it looks like a dark, irregularly shaped chunk of rock and ice covered in craters, floating in deep space with absolutely no glowing tail visible.
A close-up image of a distant frozen comet nucleus. As you can see, it looks like a dark, irregularly shaped chunk of rock and ice covered in craters, floating in deep space with absolutely no glowing tail visible.

Prompt

Is this dark object a comet?