Exploring Comets

Reflections on comets, missions and modeling

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1. What are your ideas about comets?
   What are comets? Where did they first originate? What components make up a comet? What don't we know about comets? Draw a diagram of what a comet might look like.
   
   
   
   
   
2. After doing some research, what new ideas do you have about comets, their origin and composition? What are the physical parts of a comet?
   Compare your new information with the list that you built as a class. Draw a diagram of a comet as you now understand it.
   
   
   
   
   
3. What ideas do you have about why scientists explore comets?
   Why do they want to know about them? Why would more information make a difference to them?
   
   
   
   
   
4. Pick one of the questions scientists had about comets and decide what kind of mission might find the answer.
   How would you investigate a comet? What kind of a mission would you put together? What kind of real or imagined technology would you use? What would you need to know first?
   
   
   
   
   
5. What kind of "model" would you build to test the details of your design and show your comet's possible environment?
   
   
   
   
   
6. Research to see what real comet space missions exist and what kinds of technologies they are using. Other Small Bodies Missions
   
   
   
   
   

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