How are comets formed, and what are they made of?


X-Keywords:
X-UID: 3

On Sun, 14 Mar 1999 you wrote:

> How are comets formed? And what are they made of?

Astronomers are not certain how comets formed, but most believe that
comets formed at the same time our solar system did, perhaps even in
among the planets. Comets are made of a mixture of ices (water, methane,
carbon dioxide, etc) and dust. These are precisely the materials that
probably existed when the solar system was forming.

Sincerely,
Kurtis Williams


Back to the Ask An Astronomer page.