UNIVERSE
METEORS
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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The Solar System
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The Sun
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A galaxy far far away ____
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The outer planets
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Any major object that has a greater mass than the comet
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Detailed explanation-1: -Primarily, there are two types of comets: short-period and long-period. The short-period comets have orbital periods of less than 200 years. By contrast, long-period comets have orbital periods that are much longer, some even thousands of years.
Detailed explanation-2: -Comets are thought to orbit the sun in either the Oort cloud or Kuiper belt. When another star passes by the solar system, its gravity pushes the Oort cloud and/or Kuiper belt and causes comets to descend toward the sun in a highly elliptical orbit with the sun at one focus of the ellipse.
Detailed explanation-3: -Let’s compare this to the Earth: mass in comets =1026 kg / (6 x 1024 kg/Earth) = 17 Earths (or 1/20 of Jupiter). This is a fair amount of stuff, though it is spread over an enormous volume of space!
Detailed explanation-4: -Asteroids tend to have shorter, more circular orbits. Comets tend to have very extended and elongated orbits, which often exceed 50, 000 AU from the Sun.