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Comets are constantly entering and leaving the inner solar system. However, scientists have theorized that many comets are gathered in a wide area far beyond the planets of the solar system, in a location called the Oort Cloud (for Danish astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort). According to this theory, a huge spherical region surrounds the solar system at a distance of up to 1 light year (50,000 AU) from the Sun. Tiny gravitational effects of the Sun and planets (or even other stars) would pull comets from the region on an irregular but continual basis.

Once comets passed the orbit of Neptune, some would be trapped by gravity and continue to orbit the Sun, with periods of from a few years to several hundred years, until they were either ejected, evaporated, or collided with a larger body. Cometary collisions are one possible source for the water on the early Earth.

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