Kuiper Belt, Oort Cloud and the Heliosphere

The Kuiper Belt

The Kuiper Belt is a ring of icy objects beyond the orbit of Neptune, extending roughly from 30 to 50 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun.
It is named after Gerard Kuiper, who proposed its existence.
The objects in the Kuiper Belt, known as Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), include dwarf planets such as Pluto and Eris.
The Kuiper Belt is thought to be the source of most short-period comets, those with orbits that take less than 200 years to complete.

The Oort Cloud

The Oort Cloud is a theorised spherical shell of icy objects that surrounds the Solar System at a distance of up to 100,000 AU from the Sun.
The Oort Cloud is named after Jan Oort, who first speculated its existence.
Unlike the Kuiper Belt, the Oort Cloud is not in the plane of the Solar System, but surrounds it in all directions.
The Oort Cloud is believed to be the source of long-period comets, those with orbits that take more than 200 years to complete.

The Heliosphere

The heliosphere is the vast, bubble-like region of space which encompasses the Solar System, filled with the solar wind - the stream of charged particles continually blown outwards from the Sun.
The boundary at which the solar wind slows down and begins to mix with the interstellar medium (the matter that exists in the space between the star systems in a galaxy) is known as the heliosheath.
Beyond the heliosheath is the heliopause, the outer edge of the heliosphere, where the pressure of the solar wind is balanced by the pressure of the interstellar medium.
The Voyager spacecrafts have provided most of our information about the structure of the heliosphere by being the only spacecraft to reach this distant region.

Revising these points will help with understanding the layout of our Solar System beyond the 8 planets. It is essential in astronomy to understand the origin of comets and the extent of the Sun’s influence beyond the planets.