Oort cloud

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Oort cloud

The proposed oort cloud should contain billions of comet nuclei orbiting the sun at a distance of one (perhaps two) light-years. It is a proposed source of comets that pass near the sun.

Since comets are continually destroyed by approaching the sun too often, by striking planets, or by coming close enough to planets at just the correct angle to be redirected out of the solar system there is a continual loss of comets. Because of this loss, if the solar system is billions of years old, all comets should be long gone unless they are continually being replaced. The Oort cloud, thought to be very far from the sun (beyond the Kuiper Belt), is the proposed source of replacement comets.

The Oort cloud is proposed to extend out to about one light year from the sun, and contain a mass of several earths divided over billions of frozen comets. Some time ago the mass of the cloud was thought to be 380 times that of earth, but recent studies have noted that collisions in the formation of the comets would destroy all but one to 3.5 earth's worth of comets. Astronomers are in the interesting situation of considering a farther away source of comets to supply the Oort cloud which itself has no tangible evidence to support it.

A young solar system would not need an Oort cloud to explain the comets we see today.