Kuiper belt and Oort cloud. Illustration showing the Kuiper belt (lower left) and the Oort cloud (right) surrounding the solar system (at the centre of each image). The Oort cloud, a postulated cloud of comet nuclei surrounding the solar system, is thought to extend over a light year from the Sun, up to a distance of about 100, 000 astronomical units (AU). It forms a spherical shell with relatively empty areas (upper and lower centre) each side of the solar system. The existence of the Oort Cloud is inferred from the orbits of long-period comets that take millions of years to orbit the Sun. The Kuiper Belt is a disc of asteroid-like bodies in the plane of the solar system, but orbiting beyond Neptune. Pluto (shown here) and some other dwarf planets are Kuiper Belt objects. The planets Neptune and Uranus are also shown here. | |
Lizenzart: | Lizenzpflichtig |
Credit: | Science Photo Library / TIM BROWN |
Bildgröße: | 5315 px × 3403 px |
Modell-Rechte: | nicht erforderlich |
Eigentums-Rechte: | nicht erforderlich |
Restrictions: | - |