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The
Death of Comets
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Comets
loose 0.5 -- 1% of their material each orbit
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most
of the material is water, but some dirt left behind too
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Eventually
the comet hits something like Jupiter
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Recall
comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
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OR
the ice that holds the dirt together will completely give out
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Former
comets become a string of pebbles that continues to orbit the Sun
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string
of debris eventually spreads out on orbit
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If
we pass through comet tail debris we see a meteor shower
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Perseids,
Aug 12 (comet Swift-Tuttle)
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Leonids
Nov 16 (comet Temple-Tuttle)
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If
we are lucky, we see hit a dense spot in the tail debris and see a meteor
storm
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1833
Leonids -- ignited popular interest in astronomy
Meteor
showers appear to emanate from a small region on the sky
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