Comets are fantastic targets for scientific study. They stay chilly in their far-flung orbits, and the ancient masses of dirt, ice and rock contain relatively pristine materials from the earliest days of the solar system. But these dirty snowballs can't last forever. When their orbital path brings them close to the sun, they begin to warm up and break apart. A comet's icy core, or nucleus, sublimates from solid to gas under the sun's hot rays, creating a "coma" of vapor around and behind it. Eventually, after enough trips around our star, a comet will either totally disintegrate or turn into an iceless, rocky husk of its former self. Now scientists have captured the most detailed images of a ...
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