1. Understand the Concepts
* Aphelion: The point in a comet's orbit where it's furthest from the Sun.
* Perihelion: The point in a comet's orbit where it's closest to the Sun.
* Semi-major axis (a): The average distance between the comet and the Sun. It's calculated as the average of the aphelion and perihelion distances.
* Orbital Period (P): The time it takes for a comet to complete one orbit around the Sun. We'll use Kepler's Third Law to calculate this.
2. Calculate the Semi-major Axis (a)
* a = (Aphelion + Perihelion) / 2
* a = (31.5 AU + 0.5 AU) / 2
* a = 16 AU
3. Apply Kepler's Third Law
Kepler's Third Law states: P² = a³ (where P is the orbital period in Earth years and a is the semi-major axis in astronomical units (AU))
* P² = 16³
* P² = 4096
* P = √4096
* P ≈ 64 Earth years
Therefore, the orbital period of this comet is approximately 64 Earth years.
