SOLAR SYSTEM

Detailed explanation-1: -Though long-period comets observed among the planets are thought to originate in the Oort Cloud, no object has been observed in the distant Oort Cloud itself, leaving it a theoretical concept for the time being. But it remains the most widely-accepted explanation for the origin of long-period comets.

Detailed explanation-2: -The objects in the Oort Cloud and in the Kuiper Belt are presumed to be remnants from the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago.

Detailed explanation-3: -The statement is true. Comets originate from the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud located beyond Neptune.

Detailed explanation-4: -Where Do Comets Come From? It is thought that most comets originate in a vast cloud of ice and dust that surrounds the solar system. The Oort Cloud, as it is called, extends several thousand times farther from the Sun than Pluto, the outermost planet.

Detailed explanation-5: -Researchers have found that some near-Earth asteroids are actually burned-out comets, and most of them would have started out in the Kuiper Belt. (The other source of comets is the Oort Cloud, where most long-period comets on highly tilted orbits originate.)

Detailed explanation-6: -Most comets originate in the Oort cloud or in the Kuiper belt. Other bodies’ gravity can alter their orbits, causing them to pass close to the Sun. Short-period comets return in 200 years or less, others in thousands of years or not at all.