Monday, April 6, 2009

comet

A comet is a celestial body orbiting the sun which is composed of a "head" of solid material and a "tail" of vapor. Comet comes to us from Greek komētēs which means "long-haired." The Greek word for hair itself is komē. So what we commonly call the tail of the comet is really its hair....

1 comment:

  1. There is a town in Louisiana named after a race horse called LeComte, which is "The Comet" in French - except, someone misspelled the town along the way and the town is Lecompte instead. They have a dinner that serves very good pie.

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