The Oort cloud is the source of comets that occasionally arrive in the interior of the Solar System. It is usually thought to be sphere-shaped, but scientists have recently suggested a spiral shape that is twisted into a flat disk.
Oort cloud
The Oort cloud is a huge region of the Solar System that is at the very edge of it and is filled with icy bodies. That’s where comets come from. Recently, scientists have made a very unusual assumption about it.
It is generally believed that the Oort Cloud consists of at least two parts: outer and inner. At the same time, both are sphere-shaped, not very abundantly saturated with cometary nuclei.
In a new study, scientists assure that the inner part of the Oort cloud, which is 1000-10000 a.u. from the Sun, actually has a different shape — a spiral that is twisted into a flat disk. Basically it should resemble the Milky Way in miniature.
Tidal action of the Milky Way
The cause of such a phenomenon, according to the authors of the study, is the tidal forces of our Galaxy. The Sun, along with all the planets, orbits around its core, just as the Moon orbits around the Earth. And just as our moon affects the water in the oceans, the center of the Milky Way should attract everything that orbits around our star.
True, in the case of the planets and the entire inner part of the Solar System, this influence is almost imperceptible, because the gravitational force of our star is much stronger. But away from the Sun, it can lead to a phenomenon known as the Lidov-Kozai effect.
Scientists have concluded that the inner part of the Oort cloud has the shape of a disk that is tilted to the ecliptic plane at an angle of 30 degrees. It is almost perpendicular to the plane of the Galaxy.
According to phys.org
