Home >> Science & Nature >> Astronomy

How to Draw a Comet at Its Perihelion Point

A comet has three parts --- a nucleus, coma and tail. The nucleus is composed of ice and dust, and the coma is a collection of gas and dust particles enveloping the nucleus. These particles in the coma, as well as dust particles in the tail, reflect sunlight and also fluoresce, allowing us to observe a comet that is approaching the sun. At that point, the comet is at the perihelion of its orbit --- its closest approach to the sun.

Things You'll Need

Paper
Pencil

Instructions

- 1
  Draw a small circle on a piece of paper to represent the sun or any other star.
- 2
  Draw larger and larger circles around the sun to represent the orbits of the planets. Include all of the planets or only the closet ones to the sun.
- 3
  Draw an ellipse so that the sun is toward one end of the ellipse and inside it (at one of the foci). This ellipse is the comet's orbit around the sun. The ellipse will cross the other circles and be somewhat perpendicular to them.
- 4
  Draw a small dot or circle to represent the comet at the point on the ellipse that is the closest to the sun. This is the perihelion point.

Astronomy