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
The answer is twofold:
1) Comets are frozen lumps of ice and gas. Most exist in stable, regular orbits far far away from the sun in a thing called the Oort cloud.
Sometimes they get disturbed and, whilst still in orbit around the sun, their orbit is very oval and very eccentric so they go from being far far away from the sun and moving slowly to really close and moving fast
Very occasionally we will see one that coms from deep space and is just passing through and never returns
2) They have to be far and distant most of the time, or they wouldn’t survive. When they get close to the sun they evaporate and boil off and that’s what causes the comet’s tail. A comet that didn’t have a highly irregular orbit and spent time close to the sun would very quickly stop being a comet and either disappear entirely or just become a regular rocky asteroid with what’s left
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