Submitted by Outliver t3_10yv3su in askscience
Pandagineer t1_j81twjr wrote
Reply to comment by _MagnumDong in Why is the Oort cloud spherical? by Outliver
So is the Hill Cloud rotating, whereas the Oort Cloud is not rotating?
bloodmonarch t1_j82ef43 wrote
All the objects are orbiting the system at their own path. If we sum all the rotational momentum they probably are rotating a little
_MagnumDong t1_j830366 wrote
As the other commenter said, rotation of clouds is just the net effect of the orbits of their components. This is just speculation on my part, but I suspect the Hills cloud shows more rotation, because the objects that make it up are closer to their original orbits. It would also be rotating faster because it is more compact. In the outer cloud, I suspect there’s some small net rotation, but largely the velocities and orbits are randomly distributed so there’s less bulk movement.
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