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Realm of the Comets Aims
- To outline the method used by Clyde Tombaugh to discover Pluto, the Solar System's outermost planet, in 1930.
- To introduce Pluto and its moon Charon, and describe their small size relative to the other planets and their great distance from the Sun.
- To introduce the realm of the comets - the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud.
- To describe the structure and nature of comets: their size, their composition and their famous tails.
- To illustrate the behaviour of comets: their orbits within the Solar System, and the perturbing effects of Jupiter and the Sun.
- To describe the history of certain comets: Shoemaker-Levy 9, which impacted Jupiter in 1994, Halley's comet throughout history, and more recent visitors such as comet Hale-Bopp.
- To demonstrate the role of spacecraft in revealing new information about comets.
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