A comet is a loose bundle of ice and dust and rocks, a few kilometers across, that oribits the Sun. When it's close enough to the Sun, a coma, or atmosphere, tails out behind it.The word comes from the Greek, komē, meaning head hair, and an old name for a comet was 'hairy star'. This reflects the tail streaming out behind like the hair of a runner.
Some comets appear regularly (although not a weekly or daily basis) and for some cultures, they forewarn of exciting, terrible and unusual happenings. Comets are thought to have delivered much of the Earth's water, and (this is controversial) to have seeded the planet with life.
So we have the idea of a regular phenomenon that forewarns or announces interesting happenings, and which might (according to some) bring life to a community.
Picture from Stock.xchng
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