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Castor
Castor
The common name for the star Alpha Geminorum, easily seen with the naked eye. It is a multiple star system consisting of two dwarf binary stars and two single stars. This group of six stars lies 49 light-years away.
Ceres
The first and largest asteroid to be discovered (by G. Piazzi in 1801). It is 904km across and contains about a third of the mass of the whole asteroid belt.
Chondrite
The most common type of meteorite. Its stony structure is mainly made up of tiny ball-like glassy minerals called chondrules.
Chromosphere
The lower part of the solar atmosphere, lying between the photosphere and the corona (see also: Sun, the).
Cluster of galaxies
Space is not uniformly speckled with galaxies. Instead, they
lie in patches or clusters.
Our local galaxy, the Milky Way, is part of one of these clusters known as the Local Group. The Andromeda Galaxy is another member
of this Local Group. Some clusters, such as the one containing Virgo, themselves contain thousands of galaxies.
Coma
The dust and gas that surround the nucleus of a comet, often teardrop- shaped because of the way it is formed by the solar wind. The coma only forms when the comet is close to the Sun, where the solar wind is strong.
Comet
A small body of ice and rock that orbits the Sun—perhaps the remains of the formation of the outer planets. They have been likened to huge dirty snowballs. (See also: Kuiper belt.)
The nucleus of a comet is
only a few kilometers across
and is invisible for most of its orbit. But as the comet comes within range of the solar wind, it develops a spectacular glowing tail that can reach up to 100 million km in length. (See also: Coma.)
Comets leave a trail of debris behind them as they travel through space. Most of it is made up of tiny pieces of rock, or meteoroids.
Outer blue circle shows the orbit of Uranus
 Comet—Halley’s Comet. The coma forms the “tail” of the comet.
 Comet—Comets make very elliptical orbits. Those we see have an orbit that brings them close to the Earth. Encke’s Comet and Halley’s Comet are shown here as examples.
Dashed red line shows the orbit of Halley’s Comet.
2010
Inner blue circle shows the orbit of Earth.
1985
1980
Dashed purple line shows the orbit of Encke’s Comet.
1986
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