  The size distribution and total mass of objects in the Oort Cloud have
important implications to the theory of planets formation, including the
properties of, and the processes taking place in the early solar system. We
discuss the potential of space missions like Kepler and CoRoT, designed to
discover transiting exo-planets, to detect Oort Cloud, Kuiper Belt and main
belt objects by occultations of background stars. Relying on published
dynamical estimates of the content of the Oort Cloud, we find that Kepler's
main program is expected to detect between 0 and ~100 occultation events by
deca-kilometer-sized Oort Cloud objects. The occultations rate depends on the
mass of the Oort cloud, the distance to its "inner edge", and the size
distribution of its objects. In contrast, Kepler is unlikely to find
occultations by Kuiper Belt or main belt asteroids, mainly due to the fact that
it is observing a high ecliptic latitude field. Occultations by Solar System
objects will appear as a photometric deviation in a single measurement,
implying that the information regarding the time scale and light-curve shape of
each event is lost. We present statistical methods that have the potential to
verify the authenticity of occultation events by Solar System objects, to
estimate the distance to the occulting population, and to constrain their size
distribution. Our results are useful for planning of future space-based
exo-planet searches in a way that will maximize the probability of detecting
solar system objects, without hampering the main science goals.
