| Oort Cloud Wikipedia |
Introduction
The Oort Cloud in brief is an hypothesized area in space that is roughly one light year away from the Sun. To put some more context into the description, the nearest star Proxima Centauri is four times further away than the Oort Cloud.
It is a region of space where it is believed Comets originate from. There has been no
definate evidence that the cloud exists. There is a debate currently raging as to whether Sedna, the so-called "Tenth Planet" is actually part of an inner Oort Cloud. This is because is three times
further away from the Sun than Pluto, well beyond where the Kuiper Belt is said to inhabit.
These objects too far away for our telescopes to see any of these objects, also taking into account the fact that they are very small. Thousands upon
millions of Comets are believed to be "holding up" there, waiting to be sent on a journey to the Sun. They are not clustered in one area of the galaxy but surround the entire solar system.
It is named after Jan Hendrik Oort ( Apr 28, 1900 - Nov 5, 1992 ) who located them where they are widely believed to be nowadays. Before Oort, Ernst pik, who in 1932, an Estonian Astronomer had
placed the cloud just outside the solar system. The Oort Cloud is sometimes known as the Opik-Ort Cloud in recognition of the earlier hypothesis. Oort bases his cloud theory on :-
| -- | No comet's path has been calculated to indicate as coming from interstellar space. |
| -- | All comets so far seen don't all come from the one point in space. |
| -- | There is a strong belief that many comets furthest point from the Sun lies around 50,000 A.U., roughly 1 Light Year or 50,000 times the distance between Earth
and the Sun. |
Apart from being associated with the Oort Cloud,
Jan also calculated that the centre of the Milky Way is 30,000 light years away in the direction of the Sagittarius constellation.
The below pictures shows where the Cloud is located in comparison to the rest of the solar system. The Oort cloud is the blueish ring in the bottom left picture.
The Oort Cloud is believed to have been created five billion years ago
when a nebula exploded, creating the Sun and its planets. The intense gravital strength of Jupiter is said to have pushed them to the outer regions of space.
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Comments Pages 1
| | David K. Bybee | April 30, 2008, 7:20 am | | The possibility is fascinating...
"There are more things in heaven
and earth than are dreamt of in
your philosophy..."
William Shakespeare |
| | John from Holland | February 5, 2008, 11:36 pm | | The Oort cloud is a myth. Or rather: an imgaginary object, to allow the Bing Bang model meet physical reality. Comets orbit the sun, and break up quite radiply (on cosmological scales) due to melting of the icy rocks inside. Actually, comets (which are part of the solar system since they orbit the sun) are proof that the solar system cannot be billions of years old.
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/04/28/comet.breakup/ |
| | Ivan L. | October 14, 2007, 1:32 am | | Is there proof? We have seen fuzzy pictures, but for people who doubt the oort cloud to believe it we have to have clear pictures. Not a computer drawn diagram of where it exists or where we think it exist. |
| | Truthful-faker | October 11, 2007, 4:08 am | | If we are to leave the solar system, one day, and travel to the stars, how will we get thru the Oort cloud? Assuming we are traveling at 50% the speed of light, how would we slow-down/turn to dodge all the comets, etc in the Oort Cloud?
Or would we just go underneath (around) it?
I hope someone can answer this.
|
| | Frank Bollinger | September 8, 2007, 9:39 pm | | Where is the material for the Oort cloud proposed to come from, according to Oort theories and his supporters? I had a similar hypothesis not based on orbit trajetories but the fact that sun has much material coming off of it and I need to do the calculations but the velocities must have an orbit unless they are hyperbolic and leave Suns gravitational influences. Because the materials expelled have different velocities and therefore the orbital spin would distribute orbits of the materials at a band in space that I thought maight be the Oort Cloud. The other part of my hypothesis was that the accumulation of solar expelled materials would eventually accumulate into cometary bodies. Further once these comitary bodies become dense enough will leave into closer orbits in an oscilatory manner and could be cause of the bombardent statistics to go up causing mass extinctions apro. every 70 million years aprox.. |
| | C.D. Campbell | September 7, 2007, 6:40 am | | "The Oort Cloud in brief is an hypothesized area in space"
"There has been no definate evidence that the cloud exists"
So what you are saying is that this crap is made up. What's it doing in a science book, should be in a fairy tale. |
| | Admin | January 20, 2007, 12:18 am | | It has not been conclusively proven as to whether the Oort Cloud exists. This is because of where it is supposed to be situated and that the objects are too small to be currently seen. Sedna was at one time believed to be part of the Oort Cloud but as its too close to the Earth, it is no longer seen as being part of the Oort Cloud. Some people believe Sedna is evidence of an inner (unofficial) Oort cloud. Therefore, the simple answer to the question is no. |
| | George Seovic | July 20, 2006, 10:21 am | | Is there any evidence that the oort cloud exists? |
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