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    ESA > Our Activities > Space Science > Rosetta

    Life of a comet

    Life of a comet

    This animation shows how most comets originate in an area beyond the orbits of Neptune and Pluto, filled with millions of tiny comet nuclei. Occasionally a comet has a gravitational encounter with a planet and is dragged into orbit around the Sun.

    Download the latest Macromedia Flash® player.

    Last update: 9 November 2007

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