<p>You can exclude the 'considering the distance' piece - of course Oort Cloud objects could transfer between different gravitational fields.</p>

<p>However what is it you think will make this transfer? Without some sort of gravitational impetus why would one of these objects leave the solar system? And if you do manage to slingshot one out of the solar system at a high enough speed to exit the Sun's gravity, remember that most directions end up very far away from any other solar systems.</p>

<p>Tl;Dr sure, but not very likely</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-14T03:06:16.460Z
Methinks the question _**may**_ have been prompted by Nevski's transit through the Solar System on a hyperbolic trajectory out of the Oort cloud ...
Everyone
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-14T05:45:46.303Z
My line of thinking is that as stars pass one another on their way around the galaxy, they could 'brush' Oort clouds and thus exchange comets. The same mechanism may also perturb the comets to rain down on their own suns/stars.
dotancohen
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-14T07:38:46.913Z
Everyone - sure. There is no reason why that can't happen, but the distances involved are huge, so I would expect most of the casualties of that kind of pass to **not** be captured.
Rory Alsop
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-14T07:39:46.373Z
Dotancohen - distances! Oort clouds are pretty distant, but not a patch on the distance to another star. And generally there isn't much **passing** going on :-)
Rory Alsop
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-17T06:32:13.650Z
The Oort cloud is about 1 LY from the sun, or 1/4 the distance to the current nearest star. That means that the gravitational pull of the current nearest star is 1/16 that of the sun: hardly insignificant. I don't believe that planets could have a stable orbit with that type of perturbation.
dotancohen
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-17T06:32:55.000Z
@Rory: Congrats on the 1000!
dotancohen
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-17T10:23:37.853Z
Thanks. Even with the handful of really close stars, the thing to remember is that we aren't passing them, in any meaningful way. So consider their gravitational effects as relatively static.
Rory Alsop
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-25T18:21:45.613Z
But stars are not uniform in density, or size. The gravitational reach of the neighbour/passing star may be far stronger. What if the neighbouring star is, say, Antares?
Everyone
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-19T12:27:49.127Z
Note that [this answer](http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/7717/209) supports the assertion that passing stars can influence Oort cloud objects.
dotancohen
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-19T12:53:25.140Z
That's a good find. I'll need to edit and clean up my contents.
Rory Alsop
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-13T22:12:09.467Z
2013-11-13T22:12:09.467Z
Rory Alsop
<p>Considering their distance from their parent stars, might Oort cloud object such as comets be exchanged between passing stars (assuming that other stars have similar Oort clouds)?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-14T03:01:20.093Z
Similar: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/41059/are-comets-known-to-exist-in-other-star-systems
Everyone
<oort-cloud>
Might Oort cloud comets be exchanged between solar systems?
dotancohen
# Might Oort cloud comets be exchanged between solar systems?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-11-13)

Considering their distance from their parent stars, might Oort cloud object such as comets be exchanged between passing stars (assuming that other stars have similar Oort clouds)?

**Tags:** oort-cloud
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Similar: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/41059/are-comets-known-to-exist-in-other-star-systems  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2013-11-13. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

You can exclude the 'considering the distance' piece - of course Oort Cloud objects could transfer between different gravitational fields.

However what is it you think will make this transfer? Without some sort of gravitational impetus why would one of these objects leave the solar system? And if you do manage to slingshot one out of the solar system at a high enough speed to exit the Sun's gravity, remember that most directions end up very far away from any other solar systems.

Tl;Dr sure, but not very likely

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Methinks the question _**may**_ have been prompted by Nevski's transit through the Solar System on a hyperbolic trajectory out of the Oort cloud ...  
> **username_0**: My line of thinking is that as stars pass one another on their way around the galaxy, they could 'brush' Oort clouds and thus exchange comets. The same mechanism may also perturb the comets to rain down on their own suns/stars.  
> **username_2**: Everyone - sure. There is no reason why that can't happen, but the distances involved are huge, so I would expect most of the casualties of that kind of pass to **not** be captured.  
> **username_2**: Dotancohen - distances! Oort clouds are pretty distant, but not a patch on the distance to another star. And generally there isn't much **passing** going on :-)  
> **username_0**: The Oort cloud is about 1 LY from the sun, or 1/4 the distance to the current nearest star. That means that the gravitational pull of the current nearest star is 1/16 that of the sun: hardly insignificant. I don't believe that planets could have a stable orbit with that type of perturbation.  
> **username_0**: @Rory: Congrats on the 1000!  
> **username_2**: Thanks. Even with the handful of really close stars, the thing to remember is that we aren't passing them, in any meaningful way. So consider their gravitational effects as relatively static.  
> **username_1**: But stars are not uniform in density, or size. The gravitational reach of the neighbour/passing star may be far stronger. What if the neighbouring star is, say, Antares?  
> **username_0**: Note that [this answer](http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/7717/209) supports the assertion that passing stars can influence Oort cloud objects.  
> **username_2**: That's a good find. I'll need to edit and clean up my contents.  

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