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Comet

Calloplesiops altivelis

Classification

A comet is an icy, small Solar System body or interstellar object that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or coma surrounding the nucleus, and sometimes a tail of gas and dust gas blown out from the coma. These phenomena are due to the effects of solar radiation and the outstreaming solar wind plasma acting upon the nucleus of the comet.

Distribution

(c) Tom Heijnen, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY
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Countries in the Picchu catalog
France · 7United States of America · 1