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The Oort cloud (/ ɔːr t, ʊər t /), [1] sometimes called the Öpik–Oort cloud, [2] is theorized to be a vast cloud of icy planetesimals surrounding the Sun at distances ranging from 2,000 to 200,000 AU (0.03 to 3.2 light-years). [3] [note 1] [4] The concept of such a cloud was proposed in 1950 by the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, in whose ...
An artist's rendering of the Oort cloud, the Hills cloud, and the Kuiper belt. The Oort cloud ( / ɔːr t , ʊər t / ), sometimes called the Öpik–Oort cloud , is theorized to be a vast cloud of icy planetesimals surrounding the Sun at distances ranging from 2,000 to 200,000 AU (0.03 to 3.2 light-years ).
The Kuiper belt, scattered disk, and Oort cloud are three conventional divisions of this volume of space. [1] [nb 1] As of February 2024, the catalog of minor planets contains 1060 numbered TNOs. In addition, there are more than 3,500 unnumbered TNOs, which have been observed since 1993. [3] [4] [5] [6]
Artist's view of the theoretical Oort cloud, Hills cloud, and Kuiper belt (inset) In astronomy, the Hills cloud (also called the inner Oort cloud [1] and inner cloud [2]) is a theoretical vast circumstellar disc, interior to the Oort cloud, whose outer border would be located at around 20,000 to 30,000 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun, and whose inner border, less well defined, is ...
Figure 1: Geometry of the Oort constants derivation, with a field star close to the Sun in the midplane of the Galaxy. Consider a star in the midplane of the Galactic disk with Galactic longitude at a distance from the Sun. Assume that both the star and the Sun have circular orbits around the center of the Galaxy at radii of and from the Galactic Center and rotational velocities of and ...
Numerous such comets have been observed when close to the Sun. The closer an object is to the Sun the faster it needs to move to maintain the orbit. Objects move slowest when furthest from the Sun (aphelion) and fastest when closest to the Sun (perihelion) and this is why Oort cloud comets spend most of their time in the Oort cloud.
Artist's rendering of the Kuiper belt and Oort cloud. Freeman Dyson proposed that trans-Neptunian objects, rather than planets, are the major potential habitat of life in space. [citation needed] Several hundred billion to trillion comet-like ice-rich bodies exist outside the orbit of Neptune, in the Kuiper belt and Inner and Outer Oort cloud.
So far, it appears that rather than a sudden drop in the amount of comets orbiting the sun at about 50,000 AU, the Oort cloud rather uniformly decreases in size, the further away from the Sun it goes. As current observations indicate, the Oort limit is somewhere around 50,000 AU (0.8 LY) from the Sun.