Comet Astronomy

the branch of astronomy devoted to the study of comets. Comet astronomy comprises the positional, photometric, polarizational, and other observations of comets; the development of physical theories of comets; the investigation of the laws of comet motion, in particular the perturbations in their motion caused by the major planets; the development of hypotheses on the origin of comets; and modeling of comets in the, laboratory and in space. The methods of astrophysics, celestial mechanics, and astrometry are widely used in comet astronomy. Problems of comet astronomy are being worked out in the USSR at astronomical institutions in Moscow, Leningrad, Alma-Ata, Kiev, and other cities. (For an outline of the development of comet astronomy seeCOMETS.)