OORT CLOUD

Astronomysema
2 min readJan 18, 2021
OORT CLOUD

Trans-Neptune area
When it comes to the solar system, there is often a loud debate about whether Pluto is a planet or not. Various theories are put forward in favor of the planet or some other views. Yet for many, Pluto is the last object in the solar system. And is that so? Of course not. There is a lot of space and facilities behind Neptune. Unfortunately, many still know nothing about it. It is known that there is a Kuiper belt afterwards, and the space I am talking about. It is a Trans-Neptune area that contains many ice objects, rocks and dust. Scientists have a well-founded assumption that comets come to us from that area.
Oort Cloud
This area was discovered in 1950 and named the Oort Cloud. It is an incredibly large spherical cloud of ice objects and rocks that surrounds the planetary solar system. We need to understand some amazing facts about the size and distance of this area. Pluto is 39.5 AU away from the Sun. The distance of the nearest point of this area from the Sun is approximately 2000 AU. Can you imagine the picture Sun, Pluto, Oort cloud.
The size of the this area
The farthest point of this area is estimated at a distance of 200,000 AU from the Sun. This means that this area cloud is approximately 198,000 AU wide. Sunlight travels 3.16 years to cross the ice region of the Oort cloud. The solar system ends at the farthest point of the Oort cloud. The closest star to Earth is Proxima Centauri which is 4.3 light years away.

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