Kuiper belt and Oort cloud

[steve01]

Is the Kuiper belt between Mars and Jupiter? Is the Oort cloud made of similar material to the Kuiper belt? Is the Oort cloud past Pluto? Are they both flattened bands of material or do they surround our solar system?

 

[odysseus145]

Kuiper Belt<br /><br />Oort Cloud <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[Maddad]

steve<br />No, the Kuiper Belt is outside the orbit of Pluto. I forget how far out it starts; you can google it if you're curious. The Oort Cloud is even further, but it's shape is a sphere rather than a flattened disc. It extends out to perhaps two light-years, half way to the nearest star.

 

[centsworth_II]

From this web site:http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/faculty/jewitt/kb/phoebe.html<br /><br /><i>"So, is Phoebe a captured KBO?<br />Almost certainly, the answer is 'no'." <br /><br />"So, what is it?<br />Phoebe is most likely an ice/rock planetoid captured from a near-Saturn orbit at the end of Saturn's growth. It grew as one of many objects in the disk some of which accumulated to build Saturn's core, others of which were ejected to the Oort Cloud..."</i><br /><br /><br />Interestingly, it seems that KBOs remain at the same distance from the sun that they formed while OCOs formed closer to the sun -- about the same distance as Saturn. They were then 'thrown' out to their current location. In other words, while the Oort cloud is far more distant from the sun than the kuiper belt, the objects that form it were actually created closer to the sun. Phoebe seems to be one of these objects. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

Oort cloud is end of the solar system and not much known about it.

 

[centsworth_II]

crazyeddie, I think you have the formation sites of KBOs and OCOs switched in your post. The KBOs formed where they currently orbit, and the OCOs formed in the region of the outer planets and were thrown to their current location in the Oort cloud. Allegedly. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[nexium]

I like harass the mainstream deciples, by suggesting a 4th class of objects between ten kilometer size and Jupiter size. Perhaps 2000 trillion (10,000 times the number of stars) of these orbit the galaxy, but occasionally pass though the solar system; and very rarely impact or are captured into a planet orbit or solar orbit. Neil

 

[Saiph]

between 10 km and the size of jupiter....okay. You just described everything from planetismals (largish asteroids) to gas giants.<br /><br />And didn't provide any support...<br /><br />Right.<br /><br />Good one. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[steve01]

Hey everyone,<br />Thanks for the posts, now to mix it up a bit, what do we know about asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter? Is it real? Is it a sphere or a flattened disc? Does it interfere with spacecraft going to the outer planets? <br />One last question, How much does the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud interfere with telescopes when they peer beyond our solar system?

 

[Saiph]

The asteroid belt is real, it's a ring in the plane of the solar system (i.e. same orbital plane as the planets).<br /><br />It doesn't really interfere with spacecraft.<br /><br />The asteroid belt, Kupier Belt and Oort cloud don't interfere with extrasolar observations in any meaninful way.<br /><br />Remember, while there is a good amount of stuff there, there isn't enough in the asteroid belt to remake our moon, and it's spread out over a huge volume of space.<br /><br />Same goes for the Kupier belt (though it has more stuff) and the Oort cloud. Heck, we haven't actually had <i>any</i> direct observations of the Oort cloud that I know of.<br /><br />I mean, it took years of focused effort to find Pluto in the first place, and it's the biggest. Any other findings are basically accidental.<br /><br />Space is huge, rocks are not. So you don't see them much. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[centsworth_II]

<font color="yellow">"How much does the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud interfere with telescopes when they peer beyond our solar system?"</font><br /><br />Interfere!?! It is with great difficulty that a telescope can even see a KBO and the Oort Cloud can not be seen, even when every effort is made to look for it. It remains a theory. The problem is not interference with telescopes. The problem is not being able to see KBOs and OCOs with telescopes despite the best efforts. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>