What is the speed of Halley's Comet when it is nearest Earth?

Answer 1

Most comets move much faster than the Earth's velocity around the Sun, which is about eighteen miles per second. Halley's comet makes a wide loop every seventy-six years. Its farthest point from the Sun is beyond Neptune. When it is that far out, it parades through space very slowly; an airplane could probably keep up with it. As the comet moves in, it picks up speed. By the time it passes the Earth, it is sprinting along at close to forty miles per second.

Answer 2

Every comet is different, and they travel at different speeds at different points in their orbits.

In close to the Sun, comets are moving very rapidly because they have "fallen" from very distant orbits to a point very near the Sun. After passing the Sun, the Sun's gravity slows them down, to the point that they are hardly moving at all at their apehelion, or most distant point from the Sun. Then they begin to fall again. For periodic comets, this is their life.

Answer 3

The comet moves fastest when it is closest to the Sun - in other words, at apapsis.

The comet moves fastest when it is closest to the Sun - in other words, at apapsis.

The comet moves fastest when it is closest to the Sun - in other words, at apapsis.

The comet moves fastest when it is closest to the Sun - in other words, at apapsis.

Answer 4

The speed of Halley's Comet varies considerably, because its orbit is so elongated. At its farthest point in its orbit, it is travelling less than 1 km/sec (3600 km/hr). When it is nearest the Sun, it is closer to 100 km/sec (360000 km/hr). The often-quoted speed of 150,000 miles an hour refers to its velocity when passing Earth's orbit in 1910. The Earth-relative speed was 70.56 km/sec, which is 254,016 km/h or 157,838 mph.

Answer 5

The elongated orbit of Halley's Comet means that it has considerable velocity relative to the Earth and the Sun when it makes its closest approaches.

Although estimates for its 1910 passage were about 250,000 km/hr (70.56 km/sec), the measurements for its 1986 visit were 100,000 km/hr at its nearest to Earth, and 150,000 km/hr at perihelion. By comparison, its velocity at its farthest point (aphelion), as far out as Pluto, is as low as 3000 km/hr (0.83 km/sec).

Answer 6

Objects (meteors, asteroids) near Earth will usually have a speed between about 10 and 70 km/sec.

Pedantic point: They move at exactly the same speed as the Earth, because

part of the definition of a meteorite is that it has landed on

planet Earth. OK, I know you didn't mean that.

Answer 7

The comet has a changing velocity, from around 1 km sec at aphelion to 100 km/sec or more when it is closest to the Sun. The speed estimated as it passed Earth's orbit in 1910 was 70 km/sec (254,016 km/h or 157,838 mph).

Like everything else in space, Halley's Comet follows an elliptical orbit. When it is closest to the Sun, it is moving fastest, and when farthest away, it is moving quite slowly. Right now, Halley's Comet is out beyond the orbit of Neptune, moving slowly and slowing down even more as it climbs away from the Sun. In about 10 years, it will reach aphelion, at which time it will be almost completely stopped relative to its distance from the Sun, and then it will begin the long fall into the inner solar system.

Answer 8

The Earth goes around the Sun at about 30 km/sec; a comet or meteorite, coming from the far reaches of the Solar System, can have a speed of up to 42 km/sec. This means that the relative speed can be anywhere between about 10 and 70 km/sec, depending on whether the Earth and the other object travel in the same direction, or in opposite directions.

Answer 9

That depends on where in its orbit the comet is. Near the Sun, the comet was moving VERY fast indeed, but in 1200 years or so, a few hundred AU from the Sun, it will hardly be moving at all. And then it will begin to make its long fall back into the inner solar system.

Answer 10

Halley's Comet travels at a speed of about 70 km/s when it is closest to Earth.