Beakman's World
What are Comets?
Beakman explains what a comet is by having Liza act like Maria Mitchell. She explains that comets are basically giant dirty snow balls. She goes over the different parts of a comet and why comets look the way they do to us.
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Video Transcript
0:01
I want to know about
0:04
their Great Balls of
0:05
Fire to shoot
0:06
across the sky
0:08
next
0:10
Lester
0:11
comets are not
0:13
Great Balls of Fire
0:18
comets aren't Great Balls of Fire
0:20
goodness gracious what are they
0:23
well
0:24
I can't tell you that
0:27
we finally found something that
0:30
mr. smarty head doesn't know about
0:32
now look science x-bike
0:34
mr.
0:35
know-it-all mr.
0:36
sending your questions and I'll answer them
0:39
mr.
0:39
Lester
0:40
I could tell you all about comets
0:44
but it would mean so much more
0:46
coming from our own very special guest
0:50
yes she's been dead for more than 100 years
0:53
she was a pioneering astronomer
0:56
and educator
0:57
and when she was only 29 years
1:00
old
1:00
she discovered a comet
1:02
she was elected to the Hall of Fame
1:06
just had some glove
1:08
not the Baseball Hall of Fame schmendrick
1:12
the whole thing for great Americans
1:15
so now
1:16
here in her first appearance since her death
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is that Stargazer Stargazer
1:23
astronomers astronomer
1:25
please put your hands together for
1:28
Miss Maria
1:29
Mitchell
1:39
Mitchell
1:40
but
1:41
why are you so tired you try waiting up 76 years for Halley's Comet to come back
1:49
who thinks comments are Great Balls of Fire
1:53
I do
1:55
how often does he come back
1:57
every day
1:59
I'm so
2:00
sorry
2:02
okay miss him now his comments are not Great Balls of Fire than they must be shooting stars
2:11
shooting star
2:12
the meteoroids
2:13
pieces of rock floating through space that burn up as they fall through the Earth's atmosphere
2:20
and water comments already
2:22
I thought he'd never ask
2:25
their daddy snowball
2:32
oh wait
2:33
I get it
2:34
they're not Great Balls of Fire
2:36
did Dirty balls of snow
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boy I'm certainly glad they're not
2:41
X
2:42
is a loom
2:43
comets are like dirty snowballs that form
2:47
distant reaches of space
2:50
some astronomers think they formed
2:52
when our solar system was formed and they were held in orbit around the sun
2:57
with the other planets
2:59
Miss Mitchell
3:00
would you care to
3:01
bogus cope with me
3:07
is what a comet looks like from Earth
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that light you see
3:11
he is reflected sunlight now
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comets have three main parts
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the Senate
3:17
nucleus
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which can range from
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a mile to 30 miles across
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is made mostly of ice has
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frozen water
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Frozen ammonia
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Frozen methane and Frozen carbon dioxide
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hence the snowball from outer space
3:35
the second part of the comet
3:37
is the coma
3:38
that layer of mist around the new
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unlike the ice of the nucleus
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it is not solid it is a gas
3:46
a comet's coma can range in diameter from about six hundred and twenty-five thousand miles to one and a quarter million miles
3:55
finally there's the tail of the Comet
3:58
like the coma
3:59
the tail is made mostly of gaza's
4:01
with the little dust mixed in
4:04
so
4:04
the three parts of the Comet are
4:13
when do we get to the toy teapot
4:17
up the comet
4:18
Chief
4:20
their daddy because
4:22
bits of metal and rock are trapped within the Frozen center
4:27
of the Comet
4:28
sounds like they could use a little
4:30
Comet cleanser
4:35
I know
4:36
I'll save you the trouble
4:40
nothing else
4:41
I'll get back to sleep
4:43
I was having a
4:44
serious dream about calls saving
4:47
he was giving me kisses
4:49
billions and billions of kisses
4:54
before you go
4:56
would you tell us what makes the Comets coma and tail
5:00
the sun does son
5:02
first heat another radiation from the Sun melt and vaporized the dirty snowball
5:08
that makes the
5:09
how much nucleus
5:10
The Sun Also sends out a stream of super fast particles
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called the solar wind
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which pushes gas molecules and dust from the coma to farm the comet's tail
5:21
hey
5:22
when all is done and done
5:23
a comet's tail can be 100 million miles long
5:29
wow I'd hate to have to dried that thing around
