How does the Oort Cloud's physical structure contrast with the Kuiper Belt?
Answer
Nearly spherical shell
The Oort Cloud possesses a fundamentally different spatial structure compared to the Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper Belt is described as a relatively flat disk situated just beyond Neptune's orbit. In stark contrast, the Oort Cloud is characterized as a nearly spherical shell that encompasses the entire solar system, extending potentially out to 100,000 times the Earth-Sun distance. This spherical geometry implies that Oort Cloud objects can arrive from any direction, exhibiting high orbital inclinations, unlike the predominantly planar orbits typical of objects in the ecliptic plane where the planets reside.
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