Quote:
Originally Posted by CraigS
The Oort cloud is hypothetical, right ?
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Yes and no....Yes, in that it hasn't been detected as an actual object and no in that the comets with parabolic orbits have aphelion points out as far as the cloud and/or originated from there. Comets like West, McNaught, Hale-Bopp, Lulin, Ikeya-Seki etc, most likely originated from the region where the Oort Cloud is supposed to be. They have enormous orbits...some probably go out as far as 50000 AU or more. Others have been ejected from the Solar System altogether. The Oort Cloud is basically all the crud that was floating about in the Solar System when it first formed, that was ejected as the giant planets assumed their present orbits.