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26 August

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Artist's impression of a comet's nucleus

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HI RES JPG (Size: 1882 kb)

HI RES TIFF (Size: 3815 kb)

The nucleus is presumed to be a body of a few kilometres in diameter (not necessarily round) consisting mostly of water ice mixed with dust. On approaching the Sun, the nucleus is heated up and releases enormous amounts of dust and gas (a few tons per second), preferentially from the sunward side.

Credits: JPL

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