Bill Nye the Science Kitty

Chapter Thirty-Two

Bill Nye sighs in content as he pads along a rising slope, the cool of the night soothing his fur.

Bill Nye: *sees a trail of light shoot across the sky* How beautiful. 

He pauses as he reaches the top of the slope; a group of cats are relaxing on the grass, watching the sky with slitted eyes.

Skystar: *pads up to Bill* Yes, it's absolutely stunning, isn't it? Tonight's a perfect, clear night to observe the wonders of the sky. I am Skystar, and I know you're Bill Nye the Science Kitty. Please do join us.

Bill Nye: Yes, I suppose. *follows the Clan's gaze to the stars* You know, I've always wondered something.

Skystar: And what might that be? 

Bill Nye: What is the difference between asteroids, comets, meteors and meteorites?

Ginger tom: *joins Skystar and Bill Nye* Greetings, Bill Nye the Science Kitty. I am Cometblaze. I'll tell you about comets.

Skystar: *nods in consent and walks away*

Cometblaze: I love my namesake. Let's start with the basics. A comet is a little, well, relatively little body that orbits the sun on an elliptical path. When it is close enough to the sun you'd be able to see a coma, which is a diffuse cloud of gas and dust that surrounds its nucleus.

Bill Nye: I see—I've heard that they have tails?

Cometblaze: Indeed. As a comet approaches the Solar System, it causes the volatile materials in the comet to somewhat vaporise and stream out of the nucleus, which actually carries dust away with them. The interesting thing is that wherever the comet is on its orbit around the sun, its tail always, always points away from the sun.

Bill Nye: And what are they made of?

Cometblaze: Mostly ice and gas. Outside of our Solar System, comets are frozen and inactive. They are also very hard, or possibly impossible, to detect from Earth.

Bill Nye: Because of their small size?

Cometblaze: Yep! And meteorites are just meteors that have fallen all the way to the Earth's surface, which, for the record, does not happen often. Most of the time they react with the gases in Earth's atmosphere and burn out before they hit the ground.

A pure white she-cat with strikingly blue eyes pad up to them, tail waving in a friendly manner. 

White she-cat: I am Asteroidtail. Skystar has asked me to explain to you what asteroids are.

Bill Nye: Thanks—I know that they're essentially space rocks that drift around space...

Asteroidtail: Not quite. They orbit the sun like a meteor and are composed of rock and metal. However, unlike meteors, they don't have comas or tails. They can be huge, but definitely not big enough to be classified as a planet. Lots of them are in the Asteroid belt, a doughnut-shaped ring between Mars and Jupiter.

Bill Nye: Intriguing. I've learnt a lot talking to your Clan! I think I'd better get going back to my temporary shelter now. Thank you.

The grey tom leaves the group of cats to their own activities and makes his way to his refuge for the night.