The Oort Cloud is a spherical cloud of predominantly icy objects that is thought to be the source of long-period comets. It is located at the outer edge of the Solar System, beginning around 5,000 AU from the Sun and extending up to 2.1 light years. It is composed mainly of comets and a few rocky objects and is estimated to have a mass 40 times that of Earth. The Oort Cloud was first theorized by Jan Oort in 1950.

1. Oort Cloud
By: Adam Anderson

2. Size
The Oort Cloud starts about 5000 AU’s from the
sun, and extends to about 2.1 light-years from
the sun, and mostly a sphere. Most of the Oort
cloud is beyond the outer solar system, and
stops about 2.1 light-years away at the edge of
the sun gravitational influence, about half way
to proximus centauri. One incorrect assumed
fact is that the solar system is that it extends
only to the Kuiper Belt. The solar system in
fact, extends to the far edge of the Oort cloud.

3. Scale Diagram of Oort Cloud

4. What is the Oort cloud made of?
The Oort cloud is mainly made up of comets,
such as Hyakutake, a comet from the Oort cloud
that orbits high above the interstellar plane. The
comet in the Oort cloud are extremely sparse,
separated by about __________ km each. The
estimated Temputure of the Oort cloud is 4
Celsius above absolute zero. The Oort cloud is
thought to be the source of Halley-type comets
and trans-Neptunian comets. The Oort cloud
may also contain a few rocky objects.

5. Picture of a Comet

6. Formation
• Most of the Oort Cloud formed at the
formation of our solar system in the
protoplanetary disc near the sun. The Oort
clouds mass peaked after 800 million years.
Some of the Oort Cloud’s comets are from
other solar systems though. If another solar
system passes close enough to our solar
system, we can trade comets, and sometimes
send some of our comets toward the inner
solar system.

7. Picture of the Oort Cloud

8. Diagram of Oort cloud

9. Parts of the Oort cloud
• The Oort cloud is made up of two
parts, the inner cloud, or hills cloud,
and the outer cloud. The outer cloud
is more like a sphere, and the inner
cloud is more like a disc.

10. Discovery
• The Oort Cloud was discovered by Jan
Oort, in 1950.The Dutch astronomer Jan
Oort theorized that comets came from a
common region of the solar system now
called the Oort cloud. The Oort Cloud is
only technically theoretical, but we very
much think it exists.

11. Mass
The mass of the Oort cloud is an estimated
2.63390673876 * 1023 tons, or an
estimated 40 times the mass of earth.
When the Oort cloud was first discovered
in 1950, astronomers thought the mass of
the Oort Cloud was equivalent to the mass
of Jupiter, 1.4354791726242 * 1024 tons.
An difference of 2.6 to 14.4

12. Heliopause
• The Heliopause is the outer influence of the
solar wind, where the solar wind is stopped.
The Heliopause is also a deflector for the
dangerous galactic interstellar radiation. No
spacecraft's have ever reached the
Heliopause, though explorer 1 and 2 are close.
The Heliopause is observed by the IBEX
spacecraft. The Heliopause is way outside of
the planets, 110 to 115 AU from the sun.

13. Solar Transition
• The first part of the transition from the heliosphere
to the interstellar medium is the termination shock,
the slowing of the solar wind.
• The second part of the transition from the
heliosphere to the interstellar medium is the
Heliopause, the stopping of the solar wind.
• The third part of the transition from the heliosphere
to the interstellar medium is the Bow Shock, the
boundary between the heliosphere and the
interstellar medium.