Possessives

• orbit: These jets can alter the comet's orbit ( remember Newton's third law of motion?

• nucleus: A smart impactor will be used to create a crater on the comet's nucleus.

• tail: It is common for our giants to be endowed with a red streaming comet's tail of a beard!

• surface: Another big surprise was the abundance and behavior of jets of particles shooting up from the comet's surface.

Converse of object

• observe: We know that Boulliau's father observed the comet of 1607 which would later be called Halley ' s comet.

• discover: Yet we discover several long period comets every year.

• pass: In this novel, the light of a passing comet causes much of the watching population to go blind.

Adjective modifier

• long-period: The Oort cloud is the source of long-period comets with return times greater than 200 years.

• short-period: It is now considered to be the source of the short-period comets.

• periodic: The comet the becomes a periodic comet with a definite period for its returns close to the Sun.

• bright: Some other bright comet may soon flash into view.

• spectacular: Most of the brightest and most spectacular comets have been ones which have appeared only once and have never been seen again.

• ancient: The ultimate basis of his theory is that there was an ancient comet.

Modifies a noun

• chaser: The European Space Agency launched its comet chaser Rosetta in March 2004, which will rendezvous with 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014.

• assay: The effect of p53 protein on the repair of damaged DNA was examined by comet assay.

• swarm: These comet swarms would stay around for several million years.

• nucleus: After global mapping of the comet nucleus a landing site will be chosen and in November 2014 the lander will be released.

• orbit: In Vienna, Professor Edmond Weiss was busy calculating probable close encounters between Earth and comet orbits.

• tail: How else could comet tails be produced, except by ices sublimating in the heat of the Sun?

Noun used with modifier

• silver: As the maroon left its tube up it went with a perfect silver comet tail behind it.