ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Cometary knot

So, imagine there's this thing called a comet. It's like a big chunk of ice and dust that travels through space. Sometimes, when a comet gets close to the sun, some of the ice and dust starts to melt and evaporate.

When this happens, a sort of gas cloud forms around the comet called a coma. Inside the coma, there can be little clumps of dust and gas that stick together. These clumps are called knots.

Now, a cometary knot is a very specific type of knot that forms in the coma of a comet. It's like a little ball of gas and dust that has a really bright and intense glow. Scientists aren't exactly sure how cometary knots form, but they think it might have something to do with the way gas and dust mix inside the comet's coma.

In any case, cometary knots are really cool to look at and study because they can tell us a lot about what's going on inside a comet. Plus, they just look pretty neat!