why do meteors come back?

Question

So there is an article here
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/10/09/science/comet-tsuchinshan-atlas-earth

It speaks about a meteor that will be here in October and not return for 80000 years. I’m just wondering, why do meteors come back?

I assume it takes a lot of force to change the trajectory of a meteor, so wouldn’t it move in the same general direction forever and never come back?

In: Planetary Science

Answer 1

I feel like this one is gonna be much easier to explain with an illustration. YouTube search something like comet orbits and I’d imagine someone has a good visual that’ll be more helpful than the comments here