sam was gazing through a telescope and noticed a bright spot moving fast through the sky. on closer examination he observed the spot was followed by a stream of dust as it neared the sun. what did sam most likely observe?

Answer 1

Sam most likely observed a comet. Comets are celestial objects made up of ice, rock, and dust that typically have highly elliptical orbits around the sun. As a comet moves closer to the sun, the heat causes the ice to vaporize, creating a glowing coma (bright spot) around the nucleus of the comet. The vaporized ice and ejected dust create a visible tail or stream of dust, which can be seen from Earth.