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Archer's Comet

Archer's Comet

"Behold, a marvel in the darkness."

A comet was a planetary body, usually orbiting a star, composed of rock and ice. If a comet approaches close enough to a star, the increased heat causes it to shed mass away from the star, creating a coma and/or "tail".

One of the best known comets in the Sol system was Halley's Comet. (TNG: "Time's Arrow"; VOY: "Future's End")

When Sub-commander T'Pol analyzed an impact crater on the northern hemisphere of Terra Nova, Captain Jonathan Archer asked her if it was from an asteroid or a comet to which T'Pol responds it was a large asteroid. (ENT: "Terra Nova")

In 2151, the Earth starship Enterprise NX-01 discovered the largest comet yet observed by Humans or Vulcans, with a diameter of 82.6 kilometers. It was named Archer's Comet for Enterprise's captain, Jonathan Archer. (ENT: "Breaking the Ice")

In a deleted scene from "Fight or Flight", Archer asked Travis Mayweather to find an asteroid belt or comet to test Enterprise's weapons.
In the writers' second draft script of "Breaking the Ice", Archer told Vulcan Captain Vanik that, on Earth, people used to believe the sighting of a comet was a sign that change was coming.

Later that year, Trip Tucker asked if anyone on an Enterprise landing party had heard the story of the haunted comet. (ENT: "Strange New World")

Comet Burke

Comet Burke on approach to Mars

In the 22nd century, many comets in the Sol system were diverted to Mars by the verteron array for the Martian terraforming project. At one point, fourteen comets were scheduled to impact with Mars in a thirty-month span, starting with the arrival of comet Burke in January 2155. (ENT: "Terra Prime")

In 2259, xenoanthropologist Sam Kirk stated that he knew of no civilizations that developed on the surface of a comet. (SNW: "Children of the Comet")

The comet Icarus IV in the Romulan Neutral Zone was the locus for part of a battle between the USS Enterprise and a Romulan Bird-of-Prey in 2266. (TOS: "Balance of Terror")

While under the influence of Saltah'na energy spheres in 2369, Commander Benjamin Sisko compared his name with a comet who would blaze across the stars long after Kira's petty treacheries would be forgotten. (DS9: "Dramatis Personae")

The USS Enterprise-D tracked a rogue comet through Sector 1156 in 2370. Its core, composed largely of fortanium, proved to be a D'Arsay cultural archive, built over eighty-seven million years previous. (TNG: "Masks")

In 2371, the wormhole relay station experiment, conducted by the USS Defiant in the Gamma Quadrant, diverted a comet laden with silithium towards the Bajoran wormhole. Some interpreted this comet as the "Sword of Stars", an element in Trakor's Third Prophecy. (DS9: "Destiny")

In 2373, the USS Enterprise-E detected a class-2 comet while on patrol in the Romulan Neutral Zone. (Star Trek: First Contact)

In late 2374, Jadzia Dax ran a spectral scan on a comet that was passing through the Denorios belt. She had waited three weeks for it to enter the belt. (DS9: "Time's Orphan")

When Chakotay tried to erase a comet which had forced the USS Voyager to enter Krenim territory several months beforehand, he altered the timeline by wiping out almost 8,000 civilizations, as life within fifty-thousand kilometers around the comet would have never existed. Four billion years ago, hydrocarbon fragments of this comet erased plant life on a planet. (VOY: "Year of Hell, Part II")

Around this time, the Silver Blood USS Voyager collected silicates from a comet in the Podaris sector. (VOY: "Course: Oblivion")

In 2377, Harry Kim, Seven of Nine, and The Doctor undertook a mission to collect cometary bio-matter, so that The Doctor could create new medicines. (VOY: "Body and Soul")

In 2401, comet was listed as one of the results in Raffaela Musiker's search for the "red lady". (PIC: "The Next Generation")

In the Sol system, many comets originate from the Oort cloud, a collection of ice, dust, and other debris particles that marks the outer boundary of the system. Other comets are known to come from the Kuiper belt.

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