“A few times a year, a visitor from deep space swings by Earth’s neighborhood. Usually coming in peace, these interlopers pass by close enough to be seen, then continue on their way.” – Scientific American
Comets are something that we all know about and something most of us have seen, whether it was on TV or in a photograph, in a movie, the idea is well known. Comets, some of them have small orbits, only a couple hundred years, most however their orbits are upwards of 2000 – 6000 + years, so we will never really ever see them with out the aid of computers. Sadly we just don’t live that long to see their orbits.
Comet creation is something that isn’t 100% agreed upon. There are a few theories.
“But a new paper published online today (July 30, 2009) by Science contends that the comets that manage to cross the solar system’s so-called Jupiter–Saturn barrier do in fact originate in large numbers in the inner Oort cloud, even in the absence of a massive disruption causing a comet shower.” – Scientific American
If you have the chance to see a comet where you live, do not pass up the chance, it is unbelievably beautiful. If you can’t sit around and wait for one to cross our path check out yearly meteor showers, there is one on its way. The Perseids meteor shower will be happening on August 12, morning/evening and it rises around midnight.