cometeste

Cometeste is a neologism used in some science fiction works and educational materials to denote a hypothetical subclass of comet-like bodies. It is not an officially recognized category in planetary science, and no object named cometeste has been observed in real astronomical data.

Origins and usage of the term vary by author and context, but it is generally employed as a conceptual tool rather than a description of a known population. In many discussions, cometeste serves to provoke thought about detection limits, survey biases, and the challenges of distinguishing small, active bodies from asteroids in wide-field data.

In the imagined or pedagogical contexts, a cometeste is typically portrayed as a small, short-period comet with a nucleus ranging from tens of meters to a few hundred meters, a highly eccentric orbit that brings it close to the Sun, and a transient coma and tail that last only days to weeks. Its activity is described as rapidly switching on and off as volatile ices sublimate under solar heating, producing brief outbursts of dust and gas.

Real-world relevance focuses on methodological questions rather than a physical catalog entry. Cometeste is used to discuss how survey design, cadence, and sensitivity influence the detection probability of small, fast-moving solar system bodies, and to illustrate the boundary between comets and asteroids in classification schemes.

See also: Comet, Asteroid, Near-Earth Object.