Why is the Kuiper belt flat but the Oort cloud spherical?

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The difference is that the comets in the Kuiper belt have not been scattered out by gravitational interactions with giant planets. Kuiper-belt comets formed beyond the orbit of Neptune in the flattened solar nebula and their orbits have not been greatly changed. Oort-cloud comets, however, formed within the orbit of the jovian planets and have been scattered out (or impacted other bodies in the solar system). The scattering was random so the orbits are in every direction and inclination, resulting in a spherical Oort cloud.

Physics & Space Science

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What observational evidence proved that gamma ray bursts do not come from objects in our galaxy?

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Physics & Space Science

A river flows toward the East at 1.7 m/s. Steve can swim 2.0 m/s in still water. If he swims, relative to the water at a direction of 33 degrees west of north, how long will it take him to cross the 75 m wide river?

A. 45 s B. 39 s C. 123 s D. 27 s

Physics & Space Science

The interstate on-ramp is 5.5 km West of your home, and on leaving for grandmother’s house you are only able to accomplish an average velocity of 38 km/hr between your home and the on-ramp. At the on- ramp, you wait for traffic, for 2.0 min – and then are able to proceed toward grandmother’s house. If you wish to arrive there, which is 15 km South of the on-ramp, over a river and through some woods, having achieved an average velocity of 42 km/hr, how fast do you need to drive south on the interstate highway?

A. 58 km/hr B. 48 km/hr C. 78 km/hr D. 39 km/hr

Physics & Space Science

Which of the following is TRUE?

A) The center of the universe is located at a point about 200 Mpc from us in the center of a cluster of galaxies. B) We measure a redshift for roughly half of the galaxies that we observe, and for the others we measure a blueshift. C) It is possible for galaxies that are very distant to actually move through space at a speed several times the speed of light. D) A redshift occurs when a photon loses energy and slows down as it moves through space. E) We see distant galaxies as they were billions or even tens of billions of years ago.

Physics & Space Science