Jan Oort
Videos
Jan Hendrik Oort was a Dutch astronomer who made significant contributions to the understanding of the Milky Way and who was a pioneer in the field of radio astronomy. The New York Times called him "o
Oort in 1970
Oort by an image of the galaxy Messier 81.
Commemorative plate at the house where Jan Oort was born in Franeker (Zilverstraat 18)
Oort cloud
Videos
The Oort cloud, sometimes called the Öpik–Oort cloud, is theorized to be a cloud of billions of icy planetesimals surrounding the Sun at distances ranging from 2,000 to 200,000 AU. Its existence was p
Jan Oort
…about comets, including the realization that their orbits "implied there was a lot more solar system than the region occupied by the planets." The Oort cloud, the Oort constants, Oort Limit, an impact crater on Pluto (Oort), and the asteroid 1691 Oort were all named after him. Oort was born in Franeker, a…
The distance from the Oort cloud to the interior of the Solar System, and two of the nearest stars, is measured in astronomical units. The scale is logarithmic: each indicated distance is ten times as far out as the previous distance. The red arrow indicates the projected location, in 2025–2027, of the space probe Voyager 1, which may reach the Oort cloud about 300 years later.
Artist's impression of the Voyager spacecraft
Ceres RC3 Haulani Crater
Pluto in True Color High Res