cometary

Everyday

(science) To do with comets, the icy bodies that travel around the Sun and grow glowing tails when they come near it. tree →

In the lessons

In space lessons it describes comets' dust, tails, orbits and ice — «cometary dust», «cometary orbit». Meteor showers happen when the Earth passes through cometary dust. It tells the reader the subject is comets.

Examples

• Meteor showers come from cometary dust. tree →
• The probe studied cometary ice up close. tree →
• A cometary orbit can be very long and stretched. tree →
• Scientists think cometary water may have reached the young Earth. tree →
• The telescope showed a faint cometary tail. tree →
• Halley's Comet has a cometary orbit of about 76 years. tree →

Note

Adjective only, rare. Say «KOM-uh-tuh-ree». From «comet». Don't mix comets (icy, with tails) with asteroids (rocky) or meteors (streaks of light in the sky).