does every solar system have a Oort cloud?

Question

i was looking at a diagram of the Oort cloud and i was thinking is it possible that almost every solar system has one like it? if so how dense is it? the reason i want to know is how do you look through it? i was also thinking of all these space travel sci fi shows that show you just driving your ship up to you destination planet. if every planet has a cloud like the Oort cloud that would really throw a wrench in space travel!

Answer 1

We don't yet know whether every solar system has an Oort cloud, because OCs are so dark we can barely see anything in our own OC. They're easy to see through because they have very low density -- the spaces between the "chunks" are very large.

I don't think it will surprise anyone if we someday discover that OCs are common to most solar systems. OCs could even, conceivably, overlap -- perhaps some OC objects are even echanged between stars.

Answer 2

The Oort cloud, (IPA: BrE /ɔːt klaʊd/, AmE /ɔɹt klaʊd/), alternatively termed the Öpik-Oort Cloud (/'øpik/-, like /'epik/ with a rounded /e/), is a postulated spherical cloud of comets situated about 50,000 to 100,000 AU from the Sun. This is approximately 2000 times the distance from the Sun to Pluto or roughly one light year, almost a quarter of the distance from the Sun to Proxima Centauri, the star nearest the Sun.

The Oort cloud would have its inner disk at the ecliptic from the Kuiper belt. Although no confirmed direct observations have been made of such a cloud, astronomers believe it to be the source of most or all comets entering the inner solar system (some short-period comets may come from the Kuiper belt), based on direct observations of the orbits of comets.

There is also a theory of a denser, inner part of the Oort cloud coined the Hills cloud;[1] it would have a well-defined outer boundary at 20-30 000 AU, a less well defined inner boundary at 50 to 3000 AU, and would be about 10 to 100 times denser than the remainder.[2]

In 1932 Ernst Öpik , an Estonian astronomer, proposed[3] that comets originate in an orbiting cloud situated at the outermost edge of the solar system. In 1950 the idea was revived and proposed[4] by Dutch astronomer Jan Hendrick Oort to explain an apparent contradiction: comets are destroyed by several passes through the inner solar system, yet if the comets we observe had really existed for billions of years (since the generally accepted origin of the solar system), all would have been destroyed by now. According to the hypothesis, the Oort cloud contains millions of comet nuclei, which are stable because the sun's radiation is very weak at their distance. The cloud provides a continual supply of new comets, replacing those that are destroyed. It is believed that if the Oort cloud exists and supplies comets, in order for it to supply the necessary volume of comets, the total mass of comets in the Oort cloud must be many times that of Earth. Estimates range between 5 and 100 Earth masses.
or you can just go to this website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oort_cloud#Oort_Cloud_Objects_.28OCO.29

Answer 3

considering most stars start off their lives the same way, i would venture to guess that many stars have something analogous to our oort cloud. however you have to take into acount the size of the star and weather or not the star is alone or in a multiple star system. very large stars have extremely strong stellar winds which would vaporize an "oort cloud" multiple star systems could possibly have these "clouds" but that all depends on their distance relative to eachother. and as far as space travel goes, i dont think these "clouds" would pose much of a threat. consider that the gallileo space craft flew straight through saturns rings without a scratch and that saturns rings are many magnitudes more dense than our oort cloud. i hope this helps!!!!!!!

Answer 4

Maybe. The cloud is extremely thin and cannot be seen. It is not really a cloud as much as a swarm of comets spread out all around the Sun. And the swarm is extremely sparse, with millions of miles between each comet, and each comet only 1 or maybe 10 miles wide. So it is about 99.9999999% empty space.

But some clouds have been seen around a few other stars. Those clouds would have to be MUCH thicker than the one around our sun, otherwise we could not ever see them.

Answer 5

The Oort cloud is by definition made up of fabric gravitationally sure to Earth's image voltaic gadget. Statements by some that it may enhance to this point as 2.5 mild years is basically that individual's estimate of ways far faraway from our image voltaic gadget the solar's gravity can dominate over the gravity of different stars.