On February 16, NASA shared a study on the computer simulation server. It looks good although no other peer has reviewed it yet. By studying solar physics and the heliosphere, researchers have been able to build a model of the Oort cloud, looking at our solar system. The Oort cloud began forming with charged particles and unused debris from planets in the Milky Way. This solar wind moved by the attraction of the stars or black holes has created a series of rotating arms. For this reason, it is considered that it could be a galaxy in itself. The difficulty lies in obtaining more precise data, since even Voyager 1 would not reach it for another 300 years. Will we ever know with certainty what is hidden behind the Oort cloud?
Oort cloud
According to NASA, Scientists the Oort Cloud is a giant spherical shell surrounding the Sun, planets and Kuiper Belt Objects. It’s like a big, thick bubble around our solar system, made of icy, comet-like objects. It is located in the Milky Way, beyond Pluto, and was first discovered in 1950 by astronomer Jan Oort. The Oort cloud is located at a distance between 5,000 and 100,000 astronomical units away.
Formation of the Oort cloud
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune formed 4.6 billion years ago. The unused remains of these planets were, according to researchers, the origin of the Oort cloud. How did this happen? When the planets began to revolve around the Sun, the space wind caused the debris to shoot out beyond Pluto’s orbit. Researchers estimate the distance between the Sun and the Oort cloud is between 2,000 and 5,000 astronomical units.
Oort cloud distance
The distance separating the Oort cloud is gigantic. It is a distance of between 10,000 and 1000,000 AU, which corresponds to 93 miles). This means that reaching it is almost mission impossible. Even NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, at its speed of one million miles, will not be able to reach the cloud for another 300 years. And not only that. It has to return to Earth, which would be 300,000 more years. What is the impact of this distance? Thanks to these data, we are able to know that the bodies that make up the cloud are small and move too slowly. This makes it difficult for human telescopes (even the most powerful ones) to capture them.
Where does NASA get the Oort cloud information from?
Considering the huge distance and the fact that telescopes can barely capture it, how is it possible to have information about it? Around the Sun orbit balls of snow and dust that have been thrown from the cloud. How? Thanks to gravitational perturbations, whose force moves them to the Sun’s orbit. Researchers have drawn on elements from outside our solar system in order to recreate the workings of the Oort cloud.
As a result, they have studied information on orbits and gravitational forces of comets, and with this they have constructed the structure of the cloud. To be more precise about how it works, they have used the so-called “galactic tide”. It is the result of the forces exerted by black holes, stars and the very center of our galaxy. These forces drag these elements of the Oort cloud.
This is believed to be the origin of the arms that can be observed today. Astronomers used the NASA’s Plealides supercomputer to observe how the model threw a structure into the center of the cloud, just as the Milky Way does.
All these considered, this study is based on assumptions and comparisons. To confirm it, astrologers would have to be able to observe the cloud directly, or through reflections. However, no resources have been allocated for this type of research, so, to date, everything is still up in the air.