Comets come towards our
Earth from two places or regions. There is a Kuiper Belt. This
region is far from Neptune and the bodies included in this belt move in the
same plane as the planets.
Comets in the Kuiper Belt include Halley's Comet.
They travel in
elliptical orbits around the Sun. These comets are sometimes called
short-period comets because their orbital periods, or the time it takes to complete
one cycle around the Sun, are measured in decades to centuries. As their intervals are known or they
can be predicted so we know they are not that dangerous.
Farther away from the
Kuiper Belt is the Oort Cloud, which is a ball of comets that surrounds our
solar system. Most of these comets are so far from the Sun (about a few light
years) that they appear mostly stationary. Sometimes they enter our inner solar
system by passing a
star or as a result of a random collision. They are also called long-period
comets. Because (if they return for some reason, then) their orbital period is
for millions or millions of years. It is almost impossible to predict, so they
are much more dangerous to Earth than short-period comets.
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