0
Comets are believed to have two sources. Long-period comets (those which take more than 200 years to complete an orbit around the Sun) originate from the Oort Cloud. Short-period comets (those which take less than 200 years to complete an orbit around the Sun) originate from the Kuiper Belt. Danish astronomer Jan Oort proposed that comets reside in a huge cloud at the outer reaches of the solar system, far beyond the orbit of Pluto. This has come to be known as the Oort Cloud. Statistics imply that it may contain as many as a trillion comets and may account for a significant fraction of the mass of the solar system. However, since the individual comets are so small and so far away, we have no direct evidence about the actual existence of the Oort Cloud. The Kuiper Belt is a disk-shaped region past the orbit of Neptune roughly 30 to 100 AU from the Sun. The Belt contains many icy bodies which can become comets. Occasionally the orbit of a Kuiper Belt object will be disturbed by gravitational interactions with the giant planets in such a way as to cause the object to take up an orbit that crosses into the inner solar system. Although the Oort Cloud is much farther away from the Sun than the Kuiper Belt, it appears that the Oort Cloud objects were formed closer to the Sun than the Kuiper Belt objects. Small objects formed near the giant planets would have been ejected from the solar system by gravitational encounters. Those that didn't escape entirely formed the distant Oort Cloud. Small objects that formed farther out had no such interactions, and remained as the Kuiper Belt objects.
Wiki User
∙ 14y ago
Wiki User
∙ 9y agoMost comets are beyond the asteroid belt. However, a comet with a visible tail is generally within the asteroid belt. These comets have highly elliptical orbits that take them within the asteroid belt at the closest and well beyond it at the farthest.
Wiki User
∙ 8y agoNo. Comets mostly come from the Kuiper Belt, a mass of comets that lies mostly beyond the orbit of Pluto or from the Oort cloud, an even larger mass of comets that extends beyond that.
Wiki User
∙ 8y agoYes. The asteroid belt is mostly empty space, so comets can pass through it with a minimal chance of hitting anything.
Add your answer:
Earn +20 pts
In Ender's game what is the belt?
The Asteroid Belt
How do orbital resonances with Jupiter have affected the asteroid belt?
Jupiter's gravity works against the sun's gravity to keep the asteroid belt in place. The sun pull one way and Jupiter pull the other way, and because Jupiter is closer the gracity between it and the astroids is the same as the gravity between the sun and the astroids. This caused the astroids to stay in one place, as what we know as the Astroid Belt.
What are the biggest heavenly bodies in the solar system?
It depends on how you define "object". The Sun is the largest. Jupiter is the next biggest object in the solar system.Then again, if you want to get really technical, the largest thing in the solar system BY FAR would be Jupiter's magnetosphere, which extends a radius of several million miles and nearly reaches Saturn's orbit.If the Asteroid belt can be considered an object (even though it is comprised of millions or billions of individual 'things' - rocks - then that would be the largest thing in the solar system.
What object is also known as a dirty snowball in science?
Comets.
An asteroid that is moving farther away from the sun is gaining what type of energy?
While getting farther from the Sun in its orbit, an asteroid (or other object) will gain potential energy, and lose kinetic energy.
Are comets part of the of the asteroid belt?
No. Comets come from beyond the asteroid belt, mostly from a region called the Kuiper Belt, beyond the orbit of Neptune.
Are most comets found in either Oort cloud or the asteroid belt?
Rocky asteroids. Icy comets often live in and come from the Kuiper Belt.
What is around the sun?
the planets , comets and the asteroid belt
Is a asteroid belt dangerest?
the asteroid belt is safe for now long as there ere rouge comets comet comet clos to the belt
What comet passes by Pluto?
Pluto is at the inner edge of the Kuiper belt, which is similar to the asteroid belt but with comets instead of asteroids. Therefore, millions of comets pass by Pluto.
Does kuiper belt mean comet?
No. The belt is a region of the outer solar system similar to the asteroid belt where millions of comets orbit.
Astronomers think that most comets come from?
They are from extreme outer parts of the solar system (known as "Kuiper belt") and from a huge cloud of comets lying far beyond the orbit of Pluto, completely surrounding the Sun (known as "Oort cloud").
What is the system of objects around the sun?
the solar system, made up of the planets, asteroid belt, comets, and the kuiper belt
How were comets found?
Comets come from the Oort cloud and the Kupier Belt
What objects orbit around the sun about not the planet?
There are three known asteroid belts (the Asteroid Belt, the Kuiper Belt, and the Oort Cloud) orbiting Sol, as well as many comets, planetoids, and other objects.
How many objects orbit the Sun?
Thousands inluding the 8 planets, the dwarf planets, the asteroids in the asteroid belt, and comets.
Where do meteroids come from?
The Oort Cloud or the Asteroid Belt.
