How do comets keep their oval orbit?

Question

im 13. Simple please!

Answer 1

Every repeating orbit in the solar system is an oval (ellipse) of some kind. The planets orbit the sun in ellipses too, but they are very close to being circles. That's the way gravity works. You can prove mathematically, given the way gravity and motion work that orbits must be conic sections. A conic section is a shape that you get when you slice a cone: either a circle, an ellipse, a parabola, or a hyperbola. Those are the only possible shapes of a gravitational orbit for a planet or comet around the Sun.

Answer 2

Oval is a mistake. The orbits are ellipses.
Kepler Laws state that the orbit between two bodies are always ellipses. An ellipse have two focal points: the Foci (plural of Focus). If the foci lay in the same point, this ellipse is also a circunference.

The Newton Gravity formula was use to state the orbit shape by Kepler and Halley. The comets must follow the physical laws keeping their elliptic orbit

Answer 3

The exact same way that planets keep their orbits. The speed of the comets try to fling the objects out into interstellar space. Meanwhile, the sun's gravity keeps the comet coming back. There is a fine balance between the two forces.

Imagine twirling an object on a string around your head. The twirling object wants to be flung away from you, and, it WOULD if you let go of the string. But as long as you hold on to the string, it won't fly off. Your pull on the string is like the gravity pulling on orbiting objects.

Answer 4

The same way all the planets keep theirs. Earth has an elliptical orbit too. It is just that comets have much more eccentric orbits. Basically, as the comet gets closer to the Sun it speeds up, because it is falling toward the Sun. As it speeds up it wants to fly away more and more. Eventually the speed gets so high that it does start flying away again. But as it coasts away from the Sun, higher and higher, it slows down, and wants to fall back again. This repeats forever in the frictionless vacuum of space.

Answer 5

Gravity of the sun and momentum of the orbit.

If a cometary object is disrupted from the Kuiper belt or Oort cloud and begins to move towards the Sun it follows along until swings around the Sun taking it out of the solar system again and the orbit is established and the momentum of the comet and gravitation pull of the sun maintain that orbit usless its disturbed by a planet.