SOLAR SYSTEM

Detailed explanation-1: -Long-period comets (those which take more than 200 years to complete an orbit around the Sun) originate from the Oort Cloud. Short-period comets (those which take less than 200 years to complete an orbit around the Sun) originate from the Kuiper Belt.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Kuiper Belt shouldn’t be confused with the Oort Cloud, which is a much more distant region of icy, comet-like bodies that surrounds the solar system, including the Kuiper Belt. Both the Oort Cloud and the Kuiper Belt are thought to be sources of comets.

Detailed explanation-3: -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-4: -It’s a HUGE region of space beyond Neptune. The Kuiper Belt is one of the largest structures in our solar system-others being the Oort Cloud, the heliosphere and the magnetosphere of Jupiter. Its overall shape is like a puffed-up disk, or donut.

Detailed explanation-5: -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-6: -The short-period comets are thought to originate in the Kuiper Belt, an area outside Neptune’s orbit (from about 30 to 50 AU) that has many icy comet-like objects. The long-period comets tend to have orbits that are randomly oriented, and not necessarily anywhere near the ecliptic.