- #1
Albertgauss
Gold Member
- 294
- 37
- TL;DR Summary
- Comet origins
I was reading about comets and know they come from the Oort or Kuiper Cloud. However, being composed of materials, comets that continually orbit the sun shed the substance that makes them up and, from what I've read, will only thus last for thousands, maybe tens of thousands of years. I know there are comets with longer orbits than this, but they seem rare to the solar system comets.
That would mean comets would have to be continually replenished somehow if the solar system is several billion years old.
From what I understand, new comets do come from Oort or Kuiper cloud. But what could nudge 10^13 kilogram rocks like this into orbits at all? Our nearest star is light years away and that seems unlikely. I have also read about a red star (maybe a dwarf star of some kind) that came "close" to our solar system 70,000 years ago, but it doesn't seem like that would nudge many bodies out there into comets around the sun.
Are there any theories about this or is this really still a mystery?
Just looking for general answers or links to articles that might have more informaion.
That would mean comets would have to be continually replenished somehow if the solar system is several billion years old.
From what I understand, new comets do come from Oort or Kuiper cloud. But what could nudge 10^13 kilogram rocks like this into orbits at all? Our nearest star is light years away and that seems unlikely. I have also read about a red star (maybe a dwarf star of some kind) that came "close" to our solar system 70,000 years ago, but it doesn't seem like that would nudge many bodies out there into comets around the sun.
Are there any theories about this or is this really still a mystery?
Just looking for general answers or links to articles that might have more informaion.