What process allows the volatile ices within a comet to transform into gas when heated near the Sun?
Answer
Sublimation
Sublimation is the specific process where frozen substances, known as volatiles like frozen carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and ammonia, turn directly into gas upon heating.
Related Questions
What two primary materials make up the fundamental composition of comets?What process allows the volatile ices within a comet to transform into gas when heated near the Sun?Besides frozen volatiles, what material comprises the solid component of a comet's nucleus?Which celestial reservoir, described as a vast, doughnut-shaped ring beyond Neptune, is the origin of short-period comets?Comets originating from which hypothesized spherical shell typically have orbital periods spanning thousands or millions of years?What structure forms a temporary, massive atmosphere enveloping the nucleus as ices sublimate?Which of the two typical comet tails is straight, fainter, and composed of ionized gas pushed directly away from the Sun by the solar wind?What two primary forces act upon coma material once released to shape the comet's trademark tails?What recent compositional finding forces a revision of the simple 'dirty snowball' model for some comets?Why are cometary materials scientifically valuable in understanding early solar system history?