Cosmo the Comet
Cosmo is a small, icy comet on a very long trip around the Sun. Why does his tail keep growing?
Far, far out in the cold edge of the solar system, past the planet Neptune, floated a small, dusty snowball named Cosmo. Cosmo was a comet.
Most of the time, Cosmo drifted slowly through the dark. His home was so far from the Sun that it looked like just another star.
But Cosmo was on a very long path, shaped like a stretched-out oval, that swung him around the Sun. This path is called an orbit, and his took seventy-six years to finish.
As Cosmo fell closer to the Sun, something strange happened. He started to feel warm. Bits of his icy body turned into gas and puffed out, along with dust.
"What's happening to me?" Cosmo wondered. A glowing cloud grew around his head.
Then, the Sun's light and a gentle stream of particles called the solar wind pushed the gas and dust away from him. It stretched out behind him into a long, shining tail — millions of miles long!
As he zoomed past the planets, Saturn waved her rings. Jupiter rumbled hello. "Look at your tail!" they said.
On Earth, a girl named Priya pointed her telescope at the night sky. "Mom! There's a comet!" For a few weeks, people all over the world looked up to see Cosmo shining.
Then Cosmo swung around the Sun and began the long trip back into the dark. As he got colder, his tail shrank until it disappeared.
"See you in seventy-six years," he whispered to Earth.
And far away, a grown-up Priya made a note in her calendar, so she could show her grandchildren when Cosmo came home again.
⭐ The End ⭐
💬 Talk about it
- What is a comet mostly made of?
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Ice and dust. - Why does a comet grow a tail?
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The Sun warms it, turning ice into gas and dust that get pushed back into a tail. - What is the path around the Sun called?
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An orbit.
