Get the latest tech news
NASA supercomputer reveals strange spiral structure at the edge of our solar system
The mysterious Oort cloud is the source of many of our solar system's comets, but astronomers still have no idea what it looks like. Now, new simulations may have given them a first glimpse.
The Oort cloud — the mysterious shell of icy objects at the edge of the solar system — might sport a pair of spiral arms that make it resemble a miniature galaxy, new research suggests. The Oort cloud began as the unused remnants of the solar system's giant planets (Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus and Saturn) after their formation 4.6 billion years ago. When the scientists ran this model through NASA's Pleiades supercomputer, it spit out a structure for the inner part of the cloud (the most densely populated region, located 1,000 to 10,000 AU from the sun) that resembles the spiral disk of the Milky Way.
Or read this on r/technology
