Laura Stillwell, age 9, of Nebo, North Carolina, for her question:

Where does a comet disappear to?

Every comet has its own place to go out there in the vast ocean of space. We see it only when it comes to visit the sun. Then it glows with a golden halo and sometimes spreads a long golden tail across the sky. It begins to glow when it gets close enough to the shining sun, maybe as close as Mars or Earth. After it swings close around the sun, it heads back to the darkness of space. Its tail and its halo fade away and we don't see it any more.

A comet travels in an orbit around the sun and often this path is a long narrow oval. One end loops close around the sun which is when it lights up with sunshine. The other end is way out in space, perhaps beyond Jupiter or maybe beyond the farthest planet of the Solar System. When it leaves the sun, it loses its sunshine and becomes a small dark object hidden in the darkness of space. It disappears from our sky  ¬until it swings back for another visit to the glorious sun.