Meteors from the Perseid meteor shower, caused by debris left in the wake of Comet Swift-Tuttle. Photo: Fred Bruenjes – retrieved from https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-tv-to-host-perseid-meteor-shower-program
Comets are small pieces of rock and ice that start to evaporate when they enter the inner solar system, due to their proximity to the sun, but their spectacular appearance in our skies in the past has led to them being associated with completely unrelated events occurring on Earth. This is, of course, a myth,...