comet

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cometsearch for term: An icy, "dirty snowball" (Fred L. Whipple) that orbits the Sun. The majority of comets orbit well beyond Pluto in halos known as the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud that surround the Solar System. Comet size ranges from a few meters to a few kilometers in diameter. Upon close encounters with the Sun, comet ices vaporize, creating a coma, or cloud, around the comet, and a long tail that always points away from the Sun.