Oort cloud. Artwork representing the Oort cloud of comet nuclei thought to form a spherical shell around the solar system. The Sun is at centre with t
Oort cloud. Artwork representing the Oort cloud of comet nuclei thought to form a spherical shell around the solar system. The Sun is at centre with the Milky Way in the background. The cloud extends between 2000 and 100,000 astronomical units (AU; the distance from the Earth to the Sun) from the Sun. The Oort cloud contains billions of comet nuclei. At this distance from the Sun they are frozen lumps of ice with no tails. It is thought that some may be forced towards the inner solar system by the motions of nearby stars and other bodies with significant gravitational fields. The entire mass of all the bodies in the Oort cloud is reckoned to be around 50 times that of the Earth.
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Photo credit: © JON LOMBERG/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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