Halley's Comet and Others May Be Stolen Goods

[mickw]

Famous comets such as Halley, Hale-Bopp and McNaught may have formed around other stars and been snatched into orbit around the sun back when it was packed closely with hundreds of other stars, according to new simulations.

Researchers modeled this process as an alternative to the standard picture of the formation of the Oort cloud, the roughly spherical body of comets that extends halfway to the next nearest star and is believed to be home to so-called long period comets.

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