SOLAR SYSTEM

Detailed explanation-1: -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-2: -Long-period comets (which take more than 200 years to orbit the Sun) probably come from the Oort Cloud, which is sometimes described as a “cometary reservoir."

Detailed explanation-3: -The outer Oort cloud is only loosely bound to the Solar System, and thus is easily affected by the gravitational pull both of passing stars and of the Milky Way itself. These forces occasionally dislodge comets from their orbits within the cloud and send them toward the inner Solar System.

Detailed explanation-4: -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-5: -Beyond the Oort Cloud are the termination shock and heliopause. While the inner solar system is protected from many external forces, the Oort Cloud occasionally encounters large forces that affect the orbits of the icy bodies.

Detailed explanation-6: -Comets spend most of their lives far away from the Sun in the distant reaches of the solar system. They primarily originate from two regions: the Kuiper Belt, and the Oort Cloud.