A giant comet is on its way into the solar system

Meet the lonely walkers of the solar system!

The comets are huge lumps of ice and dust. The vast majority of them are located in the outermost part of our solar system, farthest from the sun. There they hover around in an area called the Oort Cloud, which is many thousands of times farther away from the sun than we do.

But some comets also take a trip inward into the solar system. Then it whizzes away in a long orbit that swings around the sun and then goes out again.

As the comets approach the sun, some of the ice melts. It becomes a cloud of steam that extends around the comet and backwards in a tail.

Random discovery

Scientists have discovered many comets traveling through the solar system. But recently, two researchers stumbled upon something really huge.

Halley’s comet

Some comets take only one round in the solar system, and then disappear again to the Oort cloud

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