fred@inuxe.UUCP (Fred Mendenhall) (12/16/85)
*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE *** Recently, someone posted on the net that one of the possible comet formation theories has the comets forming inside the orbit of Neptune and then being thrown out to form the Oort cloud. My orbital mechanics is not very good, but if a comet was in a orbit inside of Neptune and perturbed out I can only see two possible things happening. Either the comet is given Solar System escape velocity, hence the Oort cloud doesn't form or it is thrown in a highly elliptical orbit but that orbit will still have a perihelion well inside the orbit of Neptune. The only way I know of to prevent the perihelion inside of Neptune is to have a second perturbation occur outside the Solar System and I'm not sure how that can happen often enough to form a stable cloud material out there. This implies that the most of the comets in the so called Oort cloud must travel inside our Solar System. Is this right or am I missing something? More specifically, does the theory of comet formation inside of Neptune's orbit predict the Oort cloud starting essentially inside of it's orbit? Season's Greetings fred