supercomet

English

Alternative forms

• super-comet

Etymology

From super- +‎ comet.

Noun

supercomet (plural supercomets)

1. (rare, astronomy) A giant comet.
   • 1942, Clarence Augustus Chant, The Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Volume 36‎, Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, page 167:

     The “planetesimals” of the Chamberlin and Moulton hypothesis would (if we ascribe their origin to the constant formation of atoms in solar space by the various unions of electrons, protons and neutrons, instead of the one-time tidal disruption of the sun) supply the materials upon with a long-interval supercomet could feed and develop into a planetoid or, with increasing growth, into a planet.

   • 1997, Robert G. Clouse, New Scientist, Volume 155, Issues 2089-2097‎, New Science Publications, →ISBN, page 26:

     In Napier's Scenario, major impacts occur in the dying days of the supercomet when most of its ice has gone, at which point the rest of it disintegrates into "cometary asteroids".

   • 1999, James P. Hogan, Cradle of Saturn‎, Baen, page 22:

     Low to one side, partly eclipsed by the curve of Earth's dark side, stretched the awesome spectacle of Athena's braided tail streaming in the solar wind as the supercomet fell toward the Sun.