Cool Planets #4: The Expanding Solar System

The solar system is expanding!

Not literally. What I mean is we keep learning that the Solar System stretches out further and further than we thought before. Starting from the center, here's what you will now find:

Sun
The 8 planets:

• Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.

TNOs (Trans-Neptunian Objects) in these regions:

• Kuiper Belt (includes dwarf planets Pluto, Haumea and Makemake.)
• Scattered Disk (includes dwarf plant Eris)
• Detached Objects (includes Sedna, a likely dwarf planet)
• Oort Cloud (theoretical, not proven to exist)
• Chilly and dark out there. Very!

Wow! Now about this Oort Cloud...

• Supposedly where many comets stay most of the time.
• Extends out one-quarter of the way to Promixa Centauri, the nearest start to the sun.
• So far away that passing starts have more gravitational effect than the planets.

The Oort Cloud if it exists may be divided into:

• Hills Cloud, a disklike inner Oort Cloud.
• Outer Ort Cloud (OOC!) which is spherical.

I have decide there are two kinds of people in the world:

1. Those that don't see why this is interesting.
2. Those that think this is absolutely fascinating, like me, and clearly traveling in a more eccentric orbit!