About OortCloud

• The OortCloud is the most distant region of our solar system. Even the nearest objects in the OortCloud are thought to be many times farther from the Sun than the outer reaches of the Kuiper Belt.
• Unlike the orbits of the planets and the Kuiper Belt, which lie mostly in the same flat disk around the Sun, the OortCloud is believed to be a giant spherical shell surrounding the rest of the solar system.
• It is like a big, thick-walled bubble made of icy pieces of space debris the sizes of mountains and sometimes larger. The OortCloud might contain billions, or even trillions, of objects.
• Because the orbits of long-period comets are so extremely long, scientists suspect that the OortCloud is the source of most of those comets.
• The outer limit of the Oort cloud defines the cosmographic boundary of the Solar System and the extent of the Sun’s Hill sphere.
• It is proposed to surround the Sun at distances ranging from 2,000 to 200,000 AU
• It is divided into two regions: a disc-shaped inner Oort cloud (or Hills cloud) and a spherical outer Oort cloud. Both regions lie beyond the heliosphere and in interstellar space.
• The OortCloud lies far beyond Pluto and the most distant edges of the Kuiper Belt.
• While the planets of our solar system orbit in a flat plane, the OortCloud is believed to be a giant spherical shell surrounding the Sun, planets and Kuiper Belt Objects.
• It lies far beyond Pluto and the most distant edges of the Kuiper Belt.

Source: ForumIAS