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dgriffith t1_j1pbv59 wrote

Technically they should. If you believe that oort-sized objects exist in decreasing density all the way out to the edge of Sol's sphere of influence, then they would mix with similar objects of our stellar neighbours.

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Sypherr453 t1_j1p9tp7 wrote

Do you mean two stars' oort clouds intersecting? They could be colliding and intersect that way, but they wouldn't orbit each other and have separate intersecting clouds. In general, star systems are extremely far from each other and wouldn't mix

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Realistic_Ad8138 t1_j1pa8a6 wrote

Or have they before and we just haven't witnessed it yet?

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Sypherr453 t1_j1pag1k wrote

I'm sure they've impacted. They wouldn't form a stable system with two separate oort clouds. If two stars orbit, it would create one oort cloud far from the two stars

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oalfonso t1_j1pep6m wrote

Yes, this is one of theories explaining asteroid bombardment phases earth suffered in the past. Another start passes nearly and move the oort objects from their orbits.

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FrostyAcanthocephala t1_j1pgok2 wrote

Don't think anyone knows for sure. However, there may be debris stretching all the way to Proxima Centauri.

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KiwasiGames t1_j1pht2s wrote

Nope. Two stars close enough to have Oort clouds intersecting will be close enough to be directly orbiting each other. The gravitational weirdness of a binary system will clear out anything in the Oort cloud.

But all is not lost, it’s likely another Oort Cloud will form around the binary system.

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5pankNasty t1_j1pbqr5 wrote

There is no doubt this must have happened. The ort cloud is so vast and diffuse. Stars travelling in the same galactic plane are unlikely to because they would have similar speed and trajectories, but starts from different sources, like captured globular clusters or other captured galaxies could easily "exchange" ort matter.

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space-ModTeam t1_j1ph817 wrote

Hello u/8005T34, your submission "Do Oort clouds of other star systems ever “intersect?”" has been removed from r/space because:

  • Such questions should be asked in the "All space questions" thread stickied at the top of the sub.

Please read the rules in the sidebar and check r/space for duplicate submissions before posting. If you have any questions about this removal please message the r/space moderators. Thank you.

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