Final answer:
Objects from the Kuiper belt and Oort Cloud can become comets when their orbits are disrupted by gravitational influences such as nearby stars or planets. The icy bodies from these distant regions of our solar system are remnants of the formation of the planets and can end up in the inner solar system, becoming visible as the bright comets we observe from Earth.
Step-by-step explanation:
Objects from the Kuiper belt and Oort Cloud can get knocked out of their regular orbits due to various gravitational influences. The Kuiper belt is a disk-shaped region full of icy body remnants, known as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), which are considered to be the building blocks of the planets. The belt extends to about 50 AU from the Sun and, along with the Oort Cloud, serves as a source for many comets.
The Oort Cloud is a distant spherical shell surrounding our Sun, believed to contain icy bodies that become long-period comets. It's located far beyond the Kuiper belt and extends to nearly 50,000 AU. Dutch astronomer Jan Oort posited that long-period comets originate from this cloud, occasionally getting dislodged and sent into the inner solar system. This displacement can occur when there is a disturbance caused by nearby stars or even by the gravitational pull of the planets within our solar system. Once dislodged, these comets can either burn up as they approach the Sun or have close encounters with the planets, which can further alter their paths.
Both the Kuiper belt and Oort Cloud are relics from the formation of the solar system, containing primitive bodies that, when knocked into the inner solar system, can produce the spectacular comets observed from Earth. These encounters often lead to a comet's 'death' as it loses its volatiles after several close passes by the Sun or in some cases, as with comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, catastrophic collisions with planets like Jupiter.