B Strange spiral structure in Oort Cloud, outer Solar System

  • B
  • Thread starter Thread starter Astronuc
  • Start date Start date
AI Thread Summary
A recent discovery during the preproduction of a planetarium show revealed a strange spiral structure within the Oort Cloud, prompting a reevaluation of scientific understanding of the outer Solar System. Astrophysicist Jackie Faherty noted the unexpected appearance of the spiral in a simulation created by David Nesvorny, an expert on the Oort Cloud. Initially thought to be an artifact, further investigation confirmed the spiral's existence, leading to a published paper in The Astrophysical Journal. The spiral is believed to be a long-lived feature resulting from the Galactic tide's effects on bodies in the scattered disk. This finding could significantly impact future research and observations of the Oort Cloud.
Astronuc
Staff Emeritus
Science Advisor
Gold Member
Messages
22,370
Reaction score
7,216

Accidental find in planetarium show could shift scientists’ understanding of our solar system​

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/10/science/oort-cloud-unseen-structure-planetarium-discovery

. . . during the preproduction of a show titled “Encounters in the Milky Way,” which debuted Monday at the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, a projection on the planetarium’s dome revealed something strange within the Oort Cloud: a spiral.
. . .
“We hit play on the scene, and immediately we saw it. It was just there,” recalled Jackie Faherty, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History and the curator of the show. “I was confused and thought that was super weird. I didn’t know if it was an artifact, I didn’t know if it was real.”
. . .
To investigate, Faherty got in touch with David Nesvorny, an institute scientist with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and the Oort Cloud expert who had provided scientific data for the scene.

“We didn’t create it — David did,” Faherty said. “This is David’s simulation, and it’s grounded in physics. It has a totally good physical explanation for why it should be there.”

At first, Nesvorny suspected artifacts — abnormalities or distortions in the data visualization — but once he looked at his data, he confirmed the presence of the spiral and eventually published a scientific paper about the discovery in April in The Astrophysical Journal. “Weird way to discover things,” he said. “I should know my data better, after years of working with it.”

A Spiral Structure in the Inner Oort Cloud​

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/adbf9b

Abstract: As the Galactic tide acts to decouple bodies from the scattered disk it creates a spiral structure in physical space that is roughly 15,000 au in length. The spiral is long-lived and persists in the inner Oort cloud to the present time. Here we discuss dynamics underlying the Oort spiral and (feeble) prospects for its observational detection.
 
  • Like
Likes sbrothy, Klystron, berkeman and 1 other person
Astronomy news on Phys.org
Yes, I read this on my Google front page. Kinda cool.
 
DaveC426913 said:
Yes, I read this on my Google front page.
Yeah, me too. But I went right by it thinking, "Yeah, right." Thanks Astro for the technical backup!
 
Is a homemade radio telescope realistic? There seems to be a confluence of multiple technologies that makes the situation better than when I was a wee lad: software-defined radio (SDR), the easy availability of satellite dishes, surveillance drives, and fast CPUs. Let's take a step back - it is trivial to see the sun in radio. An old analog TV, a set of "rabbit ears" antenna, and you're good to go. Point the antenna at the sun (i.e. the ears are perpendicular to it) and there is...
3I/ATLAS, also known as C/2025 N1 (ATLAS) and formerly designated as A11pl3Z, is an iinterstellar comet. It was discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) station at Río Hurtado, Chile on 1 July 2025. Note: it was mentioned (as A11pl3Z) by DaveE in a new member's introductory thread. https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/brian-cox-lead-me-here.1081670/post-7274146 https://earthsky.org/space/new-interstellar-object-candidate-heading-toward-the-sun-a11pl3z/ One...
Back
Top