So it’s interesting that the Oort Cloud is often mentioned as a real thing. Surely there are plenty of bodies discovered which are orthogonal to its existence, but Oort’s “Cloud” itself still enjoys only the status of hypothesis and not reality.
Sadly, even Wikipedia editors seem unable to distinguish between the formal definitions of “hypothesis” vs. “theory” when delivering such a scientific article.
You are correct, I meant to say Kuiper Belt, not Oort Cloud, pulled the wrong thing out of my memory. Unlike the Oort Cloud, we are doing a good job of mapping KBO's as we speak.
Comments
So it’s interesting that the Oort Cloud is often mentioned as a real thing. Surely there are plenty of bodies discovered which are orthogonal to its existence, but Oort’s “Cloud” itself still enjoys only the status of hypothesis and not reality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oort_cloud
Sadly, even Wikipedia editors seem unable to distinguish between the formal definitions of “hypothesis” vs. “theory” when delivering such a scientific article.
Oh wow, looks like I'm one of today's lucky 10,000! Thanks so much!
You are correct, I meant to say Kuiper Belt, not Oort Cloud, pulled the wrong thing out of my memory. Unlike the Oort Cloud, we are doing a good job of mapping KBO's as we speak.
If the furthest objects of the Oort Cloud are over 3 light years away, it is relatively close to Alpha Centauri.
Is there a chance that Alpha Centauri also has its own cloud that overlaps with it?
Would AC influence the cloud and adjust the orbit of smaller comets?
There's a chance, but no one knows for sure.
Oort Clouds are mostly empty space, so there wouldn't be much direct interaction. But there would certainly be gravitational effects.
My guess (FWIW) is there's more out there than we suspect, likely including plenty of rogue/wandering planets between systems.