What is the distance of the long period comets?

Answer 1

That all depends on the comet Halley's takes about 76 years where as Hale Bopp takes about 2300 years. Its the same principle with the planets the closer the orbit the faster it goes. Some Comets like Hale Bopp come from the Oort cloud about a light year away that is why it takes so long, where as Halley's goes out round Pluto and back again.

Answer 2

The only natural body that orbits the earth is the moon.

Any comets that are permanent members of the solar system orbit the sun,

with periods ranging from a few years to thousands of years.

Answer 3

Halley's Comet is orbiting the sun with a period that varies from 75 to 77 years.

The comet has so little mass that its orbit is easily changed when it passes close

to the planets on its way around.

Answer 4

Short term comets are comets that make one orbit every 200 years or less, some very short term comets can orbit once every 20 years or less. Long term comets may take anything between 200 years to thousands, tens of thousands or millions of years to make one orbit of the sun.

Answer 5

That depends on its Orbit; for example Hale-Bopp has an orbital period of 2,533 years, so wont be seen again till 4385 AD. Whereas Haley's Comet has an orbital period of 75 to 76 years and will be seen again in 2061.

Answer 6

Every 76 years or so. As comets pass the gauntlet of the outer gas giant planets on the way in or out of the inner system, gravitational influences can slightly - or greatly! - disturb their normal orbits.

In 1994, comet Shoemaker Levy 9 broke into a dozen chunks and then smashed into Jupiter like freight trains colliding, spoiling its chances of ever coming back in a few hundred, or thousand years. Today is Saturday, October 23, 2010; just a few days ago, a comet was photographed about to collide with the Sun! Minor perturbations of cometary orbits generally prevent us from making completely accurate predictions of the precise date of comet returns, especially far into the future.

Answer 7

If the period is known, the average distance can be calculated from Kepler's third law, the semimajor axis is proportional to the period raised to the power 2/3 (two thirds). So if the period is eight years, the semimajor axis must be 4 astronomical units. If the period is 1000 years, the semimajor axis must be 100 astronomical units. The semi major axis is often described as the 'average' distance, and it is the average of the maximum and minumum distances, when the planet is at either end of the major axis of its elliptical orbit. However the objects always spend most of the time in the more distance parts of their orbits, by Kepler's second law.

Answer 8

Halley's Comet is in orbit around the sun. Venus may disturb and slightly modify its orbit during

one of Halley's close approaches through the inner solar system, but has not captured it yet.

Answer 9

That depends on the comet. Some short period comets like Halley's Comet only travel about 25 AU away from the Sun, while long period comets can travel hundreds or thousands of AU in each orbit.

Answer 10

Anywhere from about two years to millions of years.

The ones we can name all have orbits of about one human lifespan.