"Comet Brorsen-Metcalf"

Tech Pan film - 16" f/4.5 Newtonian - photo © Bill and Sally Fletcher

Comet Brorsen-Metcalf was first discovered in 1847. This photo was taken in 1989 on one of its return visits.

The solid portion or nucleus of a comet is made up of ice, frozen gases, dust and small rock. And it is relatively small - less than 15 miles in diameter. As its orbit takes it closer to the sun, this frozen mass begins to melt and a coma, which is a gaseous cloud, develops around the nucleus. This coma can grow to be tens of thousands of miles in diameter. Finally a tail also develops which can become millions of miles long -

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