Question

The Oort Cloud is thought to be:

1) a cloud of debris that occasionally encounters the Earth, causing a meteor shower.
2) a cloud of asteroids moving between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
3) the spherical cloud of comets and some larger icy bodies surrounding the outer solar system.
4) the cloud of gas and dust from which our solar system formed.
5) the material in the ecliptic plane that creates the zodiacal light.

Answer 1

The Oort Cloud is a spherical cloud of comets and icy bodies surrounding the outer solar system. It is the source of long-period comets that occasionally enter the inner solar system.

Step-by-step explanation:

The Oort Cloud is a spherical cloud of comets and some larger icy bodies surrounding the outer solar system. It is named after the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort who proposed its existence in 1950. The Oort Cloud is thought to be the source of long-period comets that occasionally enter the inner solar system.

Astronomers estimate that there are about a trillion comets in the Oort Cloud and potentially even more icy objects orbiting the Sun in the space between the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. These objects are too faint to be directly observed and their orbits are too stable to bring them close to the Sun, thus remaining largely undiscovered.