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Comets (Meteors, Meteorites, Meteroids) are galactic alchemists with elliptical orbits that pass close to the Sun then journey back out into the solar system, frequently travelling beyond the orbit of Pluto before returning again. The head of comets are comprised of a bright heartcore which is surrounded by a spherical cloud called a coma which grows more luminous (developing an enormous tail), as the comet approaches the sun. As comets fly close to the Sun, they heat up and their icy material vaporizes, leaving behind a gaseous cloud filled with cometdust that shines with light emitted both from the charged ions and from the reflected sunlight.
Then, whenever the Earth
crosses the comet's orbital pathway, it is blessed with a meteor shower. Meteor
showers are cleansing streams of shooting stars that perform transmutation
alchemy as they burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.
While still outside the atmosphere, the particles are known as meteoroids. The point in the sky from which the meteor showers spring is called the radiant and is named for the constellation in which it appears. The annual Perseus meteor shower, for instance, radiates from the Perseus constellation, peaking in August. Both stone and metallic meteorites plunge from the reaches of space to come for an extended planetary visit with their cosmic kinfolk. The majority of meteorites are made up of rocks comprised of common Earth minerals, such as olivine, pyroxene, and plagioclase which contain silicon, oxygen, and traces of iron and nickel; while, metallic meteorites are made up mostly of iron and nickel.
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