path of a comet
by Mariya Gusev
orbit eccentricity
classified as love
Orbital eccentricity is a measure of how much a celestial body’s orbit deviates from a perfect circle. The more “stretched” or flattened an orbit is, the higher the eccentricity, which ranges from 0 to 1, where 0 represents a circular orbit and 1 represents a parabolic orbit (which is not a closed orbit). Eccentricity values between 0 and 1 indicate elliptical orbits, with higher values indicating more elongated ellipses.
Comets often have highly elliptical or near-parabolic orbits because they originate from the Oort Cloud or Kuiper Belt, extremely distant regions of the solar system. When these objects fall towards the Sun, their orbits are strongly influenced by the Sun’s gravity, resulting in elongated paths. Interactions with planets, especially Jupiter, can also alter a comet’s orbital eccentricity.
Short-period comets (those with orbital periods less than 200 years) tend to have lower eccentricities than long-period comets, which can take thousands or even millions of years to orbit the Sun.
The sciku above explores the sometimes complex paths of human relationships.
Further reading:
‘Our Solar System’, The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) International Observatory, available: https://www.tmt.org/page/our-solar-system
Author bio:
Mariya Gusev co-edits Haiku Pause, a formal haiku newsletter on Substack. Her work has recently appeared in publications including LEAF, The Heron’s Nest, The Mainichi, Failed Haiku, Trash Panda, Asahi Haikuist Network, Haiku Girl Summer, the Kyoto Haiku Project, and the Akita International Haiku Network, and has won awards and mentions in the Tricycle Magazine haiku challenge, the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Haiku invitational, the Kiyoshi and Kyoko Tokutomi Memorial Haiku Contest 2024, and the Wales Haiku Journal Summer Contest 2025.
Read more sciku by Mariya: ‘the lion’s gate’ and ‘The Sands of Time’.