Jan Oort was a Dutch astronomer who discovered the spherical shell of icy bodies orbiting the sun, now named the Oort Cloud. His theoretical work revolutionized understanding of comets and the solar system's outer boundaries, with scientists continuing to study how this distant region sends comets toward Earth.
·Oort Cloud is a theoretical spherical shell of icy bodies at the sun's edge, source of long-period comets
·Jan Oort proposed the cloud's existence in 1950 based on comet trajectory analysis and orbital calculations
·Passing stars can gravitationally disturb the Oort Cloud, sending comets into the inner solar system
·Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes are traveling toward the Oort Cloud but won't reach it for thousands of years
·Scientists use modern telescopes like James Webb to study distant icy bodies and early solar system formation
drawn from Encyclopedia Britannica, EarthSky, European Space Agency, Astronomy.com · updated 15d ago