The Oort cloud (named after Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, who first predicted its existence) was further predicted by astronomer Fred Whipple in his "dust cloud" theory (no longer a theory, but an established fact) as a normal "left-over" from the formation of a star and its attendant planets.

Its existence was actually verified when the Voyager space probe completed its survey of outer planets, then headed out into deep space--yet, surprisingly kept sending back data (good batteries!).

There is nothing about the planet Mercury that can be construed as unusual or especially surprising, seeing its proximity to the sun and the fact that it has a molten iron core, like Earth.

There, incidentally, is a thought to give you nightmares. The earth's surface upon which we live is composed of tectonic plates--like chunks of slag drifting around on the surface of a ball of molten iron. It's convection currents within that ball that moves the plates around, causing earthquakes and volcanoes.

Sweet dreams!!

Don Firth