Visual Glitch Leads To Accidental Discovery Of Spiral In Mysterious Oort Cloud
Scientists have long assumed the Oort Cloud, one of the most mysterious structures in our solar system, to be spherical. But during the pre-production of their new space show, "Encounters in the Milky Way," they noticed a strange spiral pattern in the middle of the cloud.
The show, which premiered on Monday at New York City's Hayden Planetarium, featured a computer-generated visualisation of the Oort Cloud on the dome. The team was reviewing the animation when they noticed what appeared to be a spiral structure inside the typically spherical cloud shape.
It immediately attracted the attention of astronomers and animators, despite not being a part of the project and only happening by chance. The structure surprised the scientists as it looked like a spiral galaxy like ours.
Jackie Faherty, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History and the curator of the show said, "We hit play on the scene, and immediately we saw it. It was just there. I was confused and thought that was super weird. I didn't know if it was an artefact; I didn't know if it was real," as per CNN.
During the investigation, David Nesvorny, an institute scientist with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and the Oort Cloud expert said he initially thought the spiral pattern might just be a mistake in the animation. When he rechecked, he found the spiral was real and it wasn't just a glitch. He was surprised to know about this, as he had never noticed it before.
Mr Nesvony published a scientific paper in April, "The Astrophysical Journal," saying, "Weird way to discover things... I should know my data better after years of working with it."
He explained that the spiral shape in the Oort Cloud happened because of the galactic tide. Although the Sun's gravity controls everything in our solar system, the Oort Cloud is so far away from the Sun that its gravity becomes weaker and it starts to affect the objects there.
So, instead of pulling them straight, it twists the way they orbit, giving it a spiral pattern look. The spiral pattern could help scientists better understand how solar systems form and evolve over time.
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