short-period comet

noun

Any periodic comet with an orbital period of less than 200 years.

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Meanings

nounshort-period comet (plural short-period comets)

plural short-period comets · alternative short period comet

  1. astronomyAny periodic comet with an orbital period of less than 200 years.

    […] comets. Depending on their orbital period, comets are classified as short or long period comets. Short period comets have periods less than 200 years. For example, Halley's Comet is a short period comet, because it has a period of 76 years.

    2014, Panos Photinos, Visual Astronomy: A Guide to Understanding the Night Sky, Morgan & Claypool Publishers, →ISBN
    1 more example

    Some bodies in the Kuiper Belt will slowly evolve inwards, to Centaur orbits (as discussed in Section 7.3), from where they might evolve into short-period comet orbits under the influence of Jupiter (mainly) and Saturn. Thus orbital evolution […]

    2004, Neil McBride with Iain Gilmour, An Introduction to the Solar System, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 273
Cite this entry
APA

short-period comet. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/short-period%20comet

MLA

“short-period comet.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/short-period%20comet. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “short-period comet,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/short-period%20comet.

Source: short-period comet on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.