SOLAR SYSTEM

Detailed explanation-1: -Short-period comets (which take less than 200 years to orbit the Sun) originate in the Kuiper Belt.

Detailed explanation-2: -As theorized by astronomer Gerard Kuiper in 1951, a disc-like belt of icy bodies exists beyond Neptune, where a population of dark comets orbits the Sun in the realm of Pluto. These icy objects, occasionally pushed by gravity into orbits bringing them closer to the Sun, become the so-called short-period comets.

Detailed explanation-3: -Most comets originate in the Oort cloud or in the Kuiper belt. Other bodies’ gravity can alter their orbits, causing them to pass close to the Sun. Short-period comets return in 200 years or less, others in thousands of years or not at all.

Detailed explanation-4: -It’s one of the places where comets come from. The Kuiper Belt is a source of comets, as it very slowly erodes itself away. Pieces produced by colliding KBOs can be pushed by Neptune’s gravity into orbits that send them sunward, where Jupiter’s gravity further corrals them into short loops lasting 20 years or less.

Detailed explanation-5: -The objects in the Oort Cloud and in the Kuiper Belt are presumed to be remnants from the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago.