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What determines the speed of comets in space?

In: Comets [Edit categories]

Answer:

Mostly, the sun's gravity combined with the eccentricity (ellipticalness) of their orbit. The closer they get to a large mass like the sun (or a planet) the more they'll speed up.

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Mikipedia

First answer by Mikipedia. Last edit by Mikipedia. Contributor trust: 307 [recommend contributor ]. Question popularity: 2 [recommend question].

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Relevant answers:

Where in space are comets?
in the oort cloud
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A comet can fly up to 10,000 miles per hour. It fly's really fast...
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Measure the distance travelled in a given time. speed is distance divided by time so if a ball moved 100 metres in 5 seconds it is travelling at (100/5)m/s20m/s
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