what is a comet made of

A comet is made primarily of a nucleus composed of rock, dust, and frozen ices including water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and ammonia. This nucleus is often described as a "dirty snowball" or "icy dirtball" due to its mixture of ice and dust. Surrounding the nucleus, as the comet nears the sun, is a coma — a cloud of gas and dust formed by sublimation of the ices. Beyond the coma, comets have two tails: a dust tail made of small particles pushed away by sunlight, and an ion (or gas) tail made of charged gas molecules pushed by the solar wind. The tails always point away from the sun and can extend millions of miles. The comet's surface is typically dry and rocky, with the ices hidden beneath a crust several meters thick. Organic compounds and even complex molecules like amino acids have been found in comets, indicating a rich chemical composition.