Enterprise and the Ti'Mur following Archer's Comet.
A scan of the Burke Comet.
A Comet is a celestial body, usually orbiting a star, having a head consisting of a solid nucleus surrounded by a nebulous coma. When close to its star, a curved vapor tail emanates from the coma.
The nucleus of a comet is composed mainly of rocks and ice. As a comet grows older, it sheds more and more of its mass, eventually becoming a "dead" comet. The coma of a comet, which grows significantly as the comet approaches its star, are frozen molecules of, typically, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, ammonia, methane, and even water.
As a comet makes its closest approach to the star it orbits, the heat energy from the star melts ice and debris from the comet, creating the tail. There are actually two tails, a gas tail and a dust tail, both caused by the star's solar wind.
Many comets originate in the Oort cloud, a collection of ice, dust, and other debris particles at the boundary of a star's influence. Other comets are known to have come from the Kuiper Belt.
Notable comets
References
- TOS: "Balance of Terror"
- TNG:
- VOY: "Death Wish"
- ENT: