SOLAR SYSTEM

Detailed explanation-1: -Orbit of a Comet. Comets go around the Sun in a highly elliptical orbit. They can spend hundreds and thousands of years out in the depths of the solar system before they return to Sun at their perihelion. Like all orbiting bodies, comets follow Kepler’s Laws-the closer they are to the Sun, the faster they move.

Detailed explanation-2: -When a comet’s orbit brings it close to the Sun, it heats up and spews dust and gases into a giant glowing head larger than most planets. The dust and gases form a tail that stretches away from the Sun for millions of miles.

Detailed explanation-3: -Most comets travel in highly elliptical orbits around the Sun with orbital periods (time between returns) ranging from just over three years to millions of years.

Detailed explanation-4: -Comets with very eccentric elliptical orbits arrive in the inner solar system from the Oort Cloud-a region thousands of astronomical units (AU, the Earth-Sun distance) away.

Detailed explanation-5: -A comet is in elliptical orbit around the Sun. Its closest approach to the Sun is a distance of 4 × 10 10 m (inside the orbit of Mercury), at which point its speed is. 17 × 10 4 m / s .

Detailed explanation-6: -Because of conservation of angular momentum, the speed of the comet is highest at its closest position to the Sun. A comet moves in an elliptical orbit around the Sun.