DO GAMMA-RAY BURSTS COME FROM THE OORT CLOUD

We examine the possibility that gamma-rav bursts arise from sources in the Oort comet cloud, basing most of our arguments on accepted models for the formation and spatial distribution of the cloud. We identify three severe problems with such models: (1) There is no known mechanis m for producing bursts that can explain the observed burst rate and en ergetics without violating other observational constraints. (2) The br ight source counts cannot be reconciled with standard models for the p hase-space distribution of objects in the Oort cloud. (3) The observed isotropy of the available burst data is inconsistent with the expecte d angular distribution of sources in the Oort cloud. We therefore asse rt that Oort cloud models of gamma-ray bursts are extremely implausibl e.