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Oort cloud
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Oort cloud

Spherical cloud of comets beyond Pluto, extending out to about 100,000 astronomical units (approximately 1.6 light years) from the Sun. The gravitational effect of passing stars and the rest of our Galaxy disturbs comets from the cloud so that they fall in towards the Sun on highly elongated orbits, becoming visible from Earth. As many as 10 trillion comets may reside in the Oort cloud, named after Dutch astronomer Jan Oort who postulated its existence in 1950.
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The orbit of the comet indicates that it is coming from the outermost edge of the solar system, the so-called Ort Cloud, which is about 100,000 times more distant from the sun than the Earth," said Donald Yeomans, a senior research scientist who oversees NASA's Near-Earth Object program office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
If you want to see a comet go 'green', wait for Feb 24! by Asian News International
Modern comet theory dates back to 1950, when two highly significant models -- the "dirty snowball" and the Ort cloud -- emerged to enliven the field.
Frozen relics of the early solar system: astronomers search for ... by Cowen, Ron / Science News
 
 
 
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