Explanation: Here is what a comet nucleus really looks
like. For all active comets except Halley,
it was only possible to see the surrounding opaque gas cloud called
the coma. During Comet Halley's
most recent pass through the inner Solar System
in 1986, however, spacecraft Giotto
was able to go right up to the comet and photograph its nucleus.
The above image is a composite of hundreds of these photographs.
Although the most famous comet, Halley
achieved in 1986 only 1/10th the brightness that Comet Hyakutake
did last year, and a similar comparison is likely with next year's
pass of Comet Hale-Bopp. Every 76
years Comet Halley comes around again,
and each time the nucleus sheds about 6 meters of ice and rock
into space. This debris composes Halley's tails
and leaves an orbiting trail that, when falling to Earth,
are called the Orionids Meteor Shower.
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