Jupiter-family comet
A Jupiter-family comet is a comet with an orbital period of less than about 20 years, controlled by Jupiter's gravity.
A Jupiter-family comet has a short orbit, taking less than about 20 years to circle the Sun, with an aphelion roughly near Jupiter's orbit. Its path is strongly influenced by Jupiter's gravity, which can change it substantially at each close approach. Most of these comets have low inclinations and move in the same direction as the planets.
They are thought to come from the Kuiper Belt and scattered disc beyond Neptune, passing through the Centaur region before being captured into short orbits. Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, visited by Rosetta, and Wild 2, sampled by Stardust, are Jupiter-family comets.
These comets are the main source of the dust in the inner Solar System that produces the zodiacal light and a large share of micrometeorites. Because they lose ice at each passage, they are active only for some thousands of years, eventually fading into dormant nuclei that may look like asteroids.
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