Unveiling the Oort Cloud

[@KF-bj3ce]

I just love smart people that can give you a KZbin presentation without background noise and very clear speaking. Thanks so much.

[@hankseda]

Nudged by the KZbin algorithm to the vicinity of the Nora system, I was trapped in her orbit (subscribed).

[@garysimon7765]

Anton Petrov caught me with space talk. I will subscribe here also because she is talking sense.

[@hankseda]

@@garysimon7765 Anton is great 👍

[@Deloneys]

Facts

[@nixdorfbrazil]

me 2. very well put !

[@electricearth1101]

The Firmament (upper sky) is made of water and the government does not want you to know.

[@BloobleBonker]

No-one has ever proved that the Oort Cloud really exists. We just know that it Oort to be there.

[@RIp-sz6yn]

Now THAT makes sense.

[@freedomforall4764]

😂😂😂

[@RonMcmurry]

😂

[@jellymop]

Nailed it

[@artharrison9586]

🙄

[@alexanderalza7964]

You had me at "a cloud of oorts" 😆

[@paaabl0.]

This channel is so underrated, I am guessing it is going to skyrocket soon

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

🤞🤞 We'd love to see it!!

[@brycefelperin]

I really love enthusiastic KZbinrs. Enthusiastic, smart and scientific KZbin channels are the best. Subscribed!

[@nicksellman6661]

Space really is the push, pull, and wait game played at insane timescales.

[@mosiprop]

Great video!! Even though I have a degree in Physics and have been a long-time astronomy enthusiast, I've never heard such a clear explanation of the Oort cloud, and the celestial mechanics methodology used to determine its properties.. and be delivered with such joy. Very well done! Thanks, Nora! You earned my subscription.

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

That's so kind! Thanks and welcome!

[@SpicyTexan64]

You mean that thing that doesn't exist? 😂

[@ghpeakfitness3813]

Yeah no kidding, straight up, I love the enthusiasm, I have no degree, I'm a simple tradesman, but I've always loved astrology...anyways, yeah the enthusiasm was awesome, it got me right into the video lol

[@Palimbacchius]

@@ghpeakfitness3813 "I've always loved astrology" -- then you're in the wrong place.

[@XKathXgames]

This was great! Can't believe I hadn't found your channel before. Subscribed now!

[@marianneb.7112]

Thanks, Nora! Very interesting! New sub here. I came from Fraiser Crane's channel today.

[@mikeottersole]

Big planets kicking rocks around. Neat description.

[@PraveenSrJ01]

Thanks for the video about talking about the Oort Cloud ☁️😇

[@dreadogastusf3548]

By the end of the video, I can say that it's a win-win experience. Nora gets to nerd out. And I get my vague knowledge of the Oort cloud brought into focus by her detailed explanation of the entire process. Many thanx. *subscribe*

[@mikehalonen305]

I've been into astronomy since I was a child, so 30 yrs +. Love this video I could listen to you explain space all day.

[@ParkourBrian]

This was my favourite Oort History class yet

[@lorensims4846]

This is fascinating and delightful! It reminds me of an Advanced Topics in Astronomy class I took during my second year in college. It was taught by the head of the department and his enthusiasm was contagious. As with this video, there was no math requirement, but he occasionally would put it up on the board just to show that it works. We only dealt with stars, not "rocks" as he called them. We got so much history and cutting-edge theories, I felt that he gave me my religion. I still have tapes of some of his lectures. Thanks! I'll be back!

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Thanks and welcome!

[@ecu4321]

Curious why haven’t we seen an oort cloud on otter star systems?

[@vblake530530]

Doc. You are REALLY enjoying this stuff. I’m confident you and folks like will figure it all out, cause you lost me back around 11:49

[@The1SuperAtheist]

Your videos are very organized and you are a very prepared person. I had to subscribe. Thank you for your hard work and your passion for the cosmos.

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Thanks and welcome!

[@timmccaffery4826]

Always love your shorts. Deeper dive is very worthy for the Oort bodies! I'm more of a statics guy so very humbled by someone who digs the uber complicated dynamics field! LLaP

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

I love it and yet am constantly humbled by it as well!

[@rezaj4724]

You explain very well and you are so adorable. ❤

[@paulcooper8818]

Informative well presented hypothesis. I had incorrectly assumed the Ort Cloud was within the heliopause (not paying attention to the numbers). 2000 AU almost seems accessible compared to 100,000 AU, pretty thick.

[@RodneySandwhichez]

This was absolutely fantastic. I had to stop several times and look some things up. Great material and what a deep dive on this.

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

I'm so glad you enjoyed it, and that it sparked additional learning! 🧡

[@henrytjernlund]

Great video. Thank you.

[@Luke1959]

Great video, totally presented with passion and knowledge!! Keep it up, Nora! Subscribed👍🥳

[@WILLIAMDRISH]

My friend Dr. Walter J. Wild and I, when we were students at IIT in the 1970s, used IIT's PRIME computer to do the 3-4-5 3-Body problem numerically, and one of the masses got shot away from the two that ended up (after an extremely complicated dance) in orbit. I'm glad I found your KZbin channel, and, if you don't mind my saying so, I think you are a great lecturer. BTW, although it deals with inverse light curve imaging of Pluto, rather than celestial mechanics, you might be interested in a paper Walter and I, et al published in ICARUS in the 1990s: "Images of Pluto Generated by Matrix Lightcurve Inversion". So, I think you are great, and I'm looking forward to watching more of your lectures.

[@WWTormentor]

I’m glad that I found your channel. My 14 year old daughter has always loved science specifically math, physics, and astronomy. When she started her freshman year in high school back in a august 2023, she met with her counselor and informed her that she wanted to go to Caltech and study physics and astronomy. Her counselor told her that only boys go into the field and she should reconsider. This devastated her. So, since then I have been looking to find channel or females in science for her to watch and realize she can always do what ever she wants regardless what others think. We have subscribed and eagerly looking forward to see all your videos.

[@ambermartin3961]

Do we still have that ridiculous misogyny going on? 😢

[@WWTormentor]

@@ambermartin3961 apparently. I was shocked myself when I heard it. If I wasn’t there in the meeting with her, I would have assumed she misinterpreted what the counselor told her.

[@ambermartin3961]

​@WWTormentor I wish I could parade all of my women in STEM students in front of him, each giving him the scientific data on how women perform at least as well as men do in science and math in places where they don't face discriminatory crud. Ooooo, I'm all angry on your daughter's behalf.

[@nocturnalmayhem0]

id go to the school board about that.

[@WWTormentor]

@@nocturnalmayhem0 here in Los Angeles where the school board is corrupt and controlled by the liberal left wing? Good luck with that. Instead I pulled them out of Public school and sent them to private school.

[@matthiasmartin4355]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us!

[@-MaXuS-]

What an amazing surprise treat of a video! 👌 Super fascinating content! A definite subscribe. ✌️🖖

[@robertrohler3644]

"A cloud of Oorts" what a hoot! That was funny :)

[@Klaus293]

Wow! Nora, I’m so pleased to have found your channel. Excellent and I’ve subscribed.

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Thanks and welcome! 😊

[@skweetis]

Excellent and enlightening discussion of the subject. Although I remember learning about the hypothesized existence of the Oort cloud and its relation to comets as a kid, I'd never stopped to delve into the physics which could lead to its formation. It makes me think about the recent visit of 'Oumuamua, and how we've only had telescopes capable of detecting objects like that for a few short decades. It is doubtless that all kinds of space detritus like 'Oumuamua has visited our solar system from other stars, thrown our way by these same processes, while our former neighbors are out wandering the galaxy in turn. Fascinating stuff! Makes me feel small and full of awe at the scale and complexity of our universe.

[@TheZoltan-42]

The Oort cloud is like the interstellar transit section of a galactic spaceport. Object check in, check out. Some stick around before going home. Others get on long-haul orbits and end up in other Oort clouds. Where they may or may not stay.

[@blackfly56]

The Oort Cloud made it kind of gloomy yesterday as it’s darker and greyer than the other nice white puffy clouds that were lazy rivering over my backyard.

[@welingkartr416]

Nice! I wondered about the Oort cloud and saw an article about a recent paper where they simulated motion of stars in the neighbourhood coming close every 70K years or so and causing changes in the inner solar system. Your description was quite helpful, though I could figure that there's some uncertainty given so many factors that influence this dynamic system. Thank you.

[@PhilGartman]

I love, love, love this video. I've heard about the Oort Cloud but usually only in passing. This is the first time I've gotten an actual explanation of what it is and how it came to be. So thank you!

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Glad you enjoyed it! 🧡

[@erasmuus]

Your joy and passion for the subject is infectious. Subscription heartily earned. I look forward to further deep dives!

[@peopleseethis]

Great channel you got here! Subscribed.

[@clairecelestin8437]

I loved the video, and I loved the enthusiasm! I have one question... If post-scattering orbital parameters have eccentricities that are asymptotic to 1, how are objects ever scattered into parabolic or hyperbolic trajectories to escape the system? I'm assuming the equation and asymptotic behavior are a special case emerging from the restricted circular 3 body simplifications, and that the real chaos has less neat and more yeet. Still, I'd love to hear the proper answer. Thank you for the great content! I've subscribed, and I'm looking forward to perusing your library.

[@PraveenSrJ01]

You have a whopping 592 videos on astronomy topics which is really cool. Plan to watch about 20 this year in my spare time.

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Welcome! Some are much longer than others 😂

[@nirorbach8046]

Arranged my intuitions around this subject I didn't have the words so thanks for this interesting video 🙂

[@jamesbest2221]

This was interesting! Thank you. You have a perfect pace through the information without fluff.

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!

[@bryandraughn9830]

I truly appreciate the detailed explanation. Sometimes I would learn a vague description and I've always wanted to know more about how the Oort cloud was formed. Great video!

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Glad to hear it! 🧡

[@jroar123]

The Oort Cloud makes sense. As our solar system travels around the Milky Way galaxy, (450,000 miles per hour (720,000 kilometers per hour)), it's bound to bump into space rubble, which forms the Cloud.

[@PraveenSrJ01]

There is tons of rubble in the infinite ♾️ vastness of outer space 🪐

[@jroar123]

@@PraveenSrJ01 where some see rubble, I see minerals, metals, precious stones, and more importantly, H2O. We should go to Mars after the moon to look for what we need to survive there (H2O). If we were to find vast underground lakes, we would have hit the jackpot.

[@StephenJohnson-jb7xe]

Fantastic job, simultaneously very informative, well explained and done in a very engaging manner.

[@videosight1]

This was great, thank you

[@deleonjessie1]

Great video. Very informing with data and examples.

[@mysterirhys]

Amazing that so much is ‘known’ about something that has never been seen, visited, or…anything. Thank you for admitting that it is only hypothetical.

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Yep, sure is great that science can help us make sense of the universe based on evidence!

[@mysterirhys]

@@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy a few long period comets falling in toward the sun is hardly evidence for the purported ‘cloud’ you’re claiming to be out there. The Oort Cloud is still just a theory

[@bigedslobotomy]

What I find interesting about the Oort Cloud theory is that in science, first you have to hypothesize that something exists before other scientists start to look for such objects. A lot of the “proof” behind these Oort objects is their highly eccentric orbits that are outside the solar plane. They will be exceedingly difficult to prove because of their great distance, their large number, and small size.

[@zen1647]

Have you ever seen an electron? Lots of science is based on very careful, systematic indirect observations. Love it!

[@mrfranksan]

There's a big gap between the kuiper belt and oort cloud, right? Why?

[@anderssundin354]

Just found this channel. Nora, you're a great lecturer, can't wait to watch more of your stuff. Great video!

[@davedsilva]

Came for the jokes. Stayed for the astronomy class. New subscriber.

[@nomdeguerre7265]

Excellent synopsis of current hypothesis and theory of the Oort Cloud! I find this one of the most interesting areas of the Solar system. With GAIA data it seems even more interesting, considering astrometry suggesting a near pass by Scholz’s star a mere 70k ya and a possible near pass by GJ 710 in a mere ( 😉) 1.5m years from now. Great presentation.....

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

If only I'd be around to see it! 😭

[@MrGaborseres]

Thank you Miss Nora 🌹 that explains it 😊

[@lambeausouth1]

Nora I love your approach to teaching us about science and specifically the the Oort cloud.

[@royfeely7145]

That was very interesting and I love your enthusiasm. I didn’t understand 95% (or more) but at least I have a vague idea what the Oort Cloud is, (if it exists! LOL)

[@MrFiddler1959]

Great video! But now I’m wondering - what would an ejected planet look like?

[@MultiStats]

Thanks, Dr. Nora! Isn't it possible to detect Oort Cloud objects with a transit in front of a star? There's a lot of stars and a lot of Oort objects.

[@clairecelestin8437]

I'm a bit of a layman here, and I'll accept corrections on what I'm about to say. The Oort Cloud is really far out there and occupies such an unfathomable volume of space that even though the whole thing is massive, it's sparsely populated. Imagine a "thing" like a grain of sand or a marble or something, and the nearest "thing" is on the order of 1 AU away. Getting the alignment right so that a significantly sized one of those things occults a distant star is the first problem. The second problem is, how much does that cause the apparent brightness of the distant star to decrease? My sense is that this change in brightness would be very small compared to the natural variability of most stars. And that leads to the third problem- how do we confirm that the brightness decrease was due to an Oort object, instead of some other cause? Your thinking that non-glowing objects can be detected through transits is correct, but in the case of, for example, Kepler data, the way we confirm what the object is is through seeing predictable luminosity dips from periodic transits- we have to see the same object transit multiple times to know what and where it is. Oort objects won't transit the same stars in human lifespans.

[@MultiStats]

@@clairecelestin8437 Thank you very much! That is a very complete response, and I do appreciate the insight.

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

You basically nailed it!

[@idlikemoreprivacy9716]

Awesome presentation, most useful concepts to go beyond non-astronomers very naive and impractical description of astral bodies' movement. I studied physics but struggled to understand how the moon moves. Extra points for making the ideas so clear using no math. Chapeau!

[@yggdrasil9039]

Thanks for the video and crystal clear explanation on one of my favourite topics. In a KZbin universe of AI-generated videos it's great to see a fellow human presenter

[@despowell2015]

So great to re-discover/re-connect with your awesome channel👌what a wonderful deep-dive into this fantastic subject🥳 looking forward to more!! 💫🌌🔭🛰️🪐🌝

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Thanks and welcome (back)!

[@robertvirnig638]

This seems to imply that interstellar space contains more objects of various sizes than I've been led to believe from my limited knowledge of astronomy and the huge amount of sci-fi that I've read.

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Space is very very empty and yet actually not very empty. There is a lot of stuff out there, but there's also a lot of space between that stuff. Even in the Oort Cloud, it's expected that the average distance between large comets is about a third of an AU.

[@robertvirnig638]

@@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy Right, I'm just thinking of all the sci-fi that assumes a ship could safely travel at a high percentage of the speed of light for interstellar distances without hitting anything. I would assume anything bigger than a grain of sand would seriously damage if not destroy such a ship. Not to mention FTL ships which if they can have an impossible drive they can have impossible deflector screens.

[@davidcadman4468]

As a wandering planet without a sun, I was passing by the Nora Sun and was captured by her gravity, Now I will be orbiting her warmth for eternity... Subscribed.... Thanks for an interesting subject...

[@joshuapowers8446]

I’m confused! Our instruments can detect water on planets orbiting distant stars, even light from the early universe, but we can’t detect a cloud of debris which is supposedly orbiting our own sun? Please explain ❤

[@deltalima6703]

You can see a spectrum if you have an energy source nearby. Whats to explain?

[@sandrokostic6008]

Ah, another grain of knowledge for me. I'll take it, thank you, subscribed. 😊

[@carloscedillo5081]

Love it !! … excellent explanation

[@patrickmchargue7122]

Excellent video. I appreciate the effort and information.

[@dukeon]

Great video. Just don’t tell TikTok kids about Galactic Tide Pods.

[@ScrotusXL]

It's there, but where is there? Ooh it's a bit spooky that Oort thingy 😮

[@maru-yay]

Thanks for the comprehensive explanation, I've heard the term Ooort Cloud before, but had no idea what it was. Have you done a video on the interstellar medium before, too?

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Not yet! It's honestly not my favorite subject (I've said it before, but I once heard it called the "interstellar tedium" and that felt...accurate), but there are some pretty interesting aspects too!

[@picasso5168]

Could you do video proxima centuri star system

[@Art-h3c]

Not very many channels talk about the Oort cloud, Sea did one a long time ago, so it's always great to hear about this subject from another channel. Thanks for the explanation.

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@bagfacedog]

Outstanding content and presentation. Subscribed!

[@cjeelde]

This was one of the best videos about Oort Cloud! Maybe the best! One thing I've been thinking about last years is: are there Oort Clouds at other stars also? So for example Centauri? What do you think?

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Thank you! I covered this a bit in the video at 19:22 but yes, I think there are Oort Clouds around other stars, although I don't think around *every* star. Definitely something I am looking forward to the what we will learn in the future about it!

[@timothyskattum950]

Absolutely brilliant in the simplicity of your vibrant and beautiful explanation. Love your “inner” fire. Interesting though, that the timelines involved are not easily understood. I mean, your talking about “passing stars” which is such a gigantic time scale. I mean the trifecta of our three closest stellar neighbors has been nearly imperceptible in their movement in our observational timescale. One brilliant fact you mentioned is the scale regarding V1 and V2 and their travel periods. Whoa, when truly considered. 😍

Thank you Dr. Bailey. I know you said we could read your paper in the video. But I don't see it linked. I make no promises that I would understand it (my undergraduate physics was in the 90s), but I'd like to make an attempt.

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Whoops I forgot to link mine!! 🤦‍♀️ I've added it now!

[@justmeva]

Thank for this very interesting take on the Ort Cloud. You really lost me for a while there until your relation to the technical "puffy" term!!! 😉

[@nikolettsurin8362]

I arrived here from the Exoplanets video but the "Cloud of Oorts" made me subscribe lol

[@shawnhorkheimer5267]

I never seen, or heard of you before !- Very Interesting, - I'm a new subscriber!. Love this stuff !- And your way is Great, cuz it's finally something different, from what other Astronomy Channels mention.- YOUR AWESOME .

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Thanks and welcome!

[@Petertronic]

This is a great video, learnt a lot!

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Glad to hear it!

[@johngrundowski3632]

Great subject ; good depth of info .🌌 thanks

[@luckybarrel7829]

Can you explain what gravitational effects predict presence of Planet 9?

[@ZoroasterIsMyCopilot]

That was a wonderful explanation of something I thought was a lot more theoretical and less understood than it really was. Thank you for a thorough and yet accessible explanation -- that hits my geeky sweet spot. One question -- and I apologize if it's already been asked and answered below --- in the graphic showing the extent of the Oort Cloud, Alpha Centauri looks like it comes close enough to the cloud's outer edge to have a strong effect. What has that done to the shape or structure of the cloud? Thank you and I really enjoyed this.

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Good question! Alpha Centauri is still pretty far, so I don't think it's having a large effect on the Oort Cloud. It is getting closer, though, and as it does it may affect some of the comets within the Oort Cloud, either sending them into the inner solar system or ejecting them from the system. I don't think it's expected to get so close as to be hugely disruptive.

Due all respect Dr. Nora, you're beautiful. I love your content, very illustrative.

[@zweibrucker]

Thank you Nora for dumbing this topic down so I can deal with the information rush.

[@eastafrica1020]

So what is the difference between the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud?

[@goldwingerppg5953]

Does the Oort Cloud eject or attract more comets/ space objects?

[@meesalikeu]

thx doc nora this was a great topic. i undeesrand the orbital dynamics now, but not clear what an oort cloud object is made of? just rock & ice? other elements? do they all vary? we could use another deep dive on it. 🎉

[@TheCirclingMowass]

How might this all change when factoring in the supposed Planet X that may be in the solar system, or is that no longer a thought? Read about it somewhere recently. Thank you.

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Planet 9 is too small to really affect the Oort Cloud, though it could help perturb some of the Oort comets into the inner system.

[@sonarbangla8711]

Excellent video, very informative and provide insight into our solar system.

[@DonaldCook-bv9xc]

How dense is the Oort Cloud, in terms of separation of its bodies?

[@xeanilshutes6485]

those posters in the backround are SO COOL! Where did you get them?

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Thanks! They are from the NASA Exoplanet Exploration office. You can download them and print them yourself from exoplanets.nasa.gov/alien-worlds/exoplanet-travel-bureau/, but I got these ones in person during my stint working there.

[@jk-video2716]

One thing that most people have no idea of and it is a bit misleading to have it named cloud is this - how far apart would the average comet be from its nearest neighbor. Same question would apply to Kuiper belt and the asteroid belt. They are invariably drawn as if they are crowded, but the distances involved are pretty high. Maybe a video just on this topic?

[@robertrohler3644]

Will the Oort cloud gather to make a mass (i.e. planet)?

[@GAMEGODFLUENT]

Awesome video, thanks for kicking some good knowledge about the Oort Cloud! Quick question though. You didn't mention anything about how many comets are actually thought to exist in an Oort Cloud. What would the density of comets be like in our own Oort Cloud, in terms of miles or kilometers between potential comets that exist in the Oort Cloud? How thick of a cloud is it in other words, any numbers there yet? Thanks again, super interesting stuff!

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Good question! Very roughly estimated to be ~1 trillion (10^12) comets in the Oort Cloud. Which is a lot, but it's also a huge volume, something like ~4 trillion cubic AU, so the density would be really low, averaging about 1.5 AU between comets if we assume they're evenly distributed.

[@fortybelow1973]

Test on Tuesday..... 😂. Great presentation of, to me, an obscure topic. I subbed. 😊❤

[@johnnyboy-f6v]

30,000 years for Voyager to just get to the inner Oort cloud and 77,000 years to exit the outer. Wow!

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Space is big!!

[@sonarbangla8711]

Next time humans try new voyager type probe will be from China. It will cross the 77000 years limit in no time.

[@ninadgadre3934]

@@sonarbangla8711what would be the mechanism to attain the high velocities?

[@sonarbangla8711]

The Chinese has devised many propulsion technics.@@ninadgadre3934

[@liquidpatriot4480]

​@@sonarbangla8711🤣🤣🤣

[@dropshot1967]

That is a very cool explanation. new sub and suggested for recommendation on Fraser Cain's channel.

[@tibodeclercq2131]

When our distant ancestors (70k years ago) watched the nightsky they saw a new star, which was actually a binary system of a red dwarf & a brown dwarf, and it passed through the oort cloud. We still need to see the comets it disturbed. In the near future a new wave of oort cloud comets could arrive.

[@mikolajtrzeciecki1188]

Uh-oh. Have we just discovered yet another Great Filter? 9:06 Am I nitpicking if I ask for the validity of the "restricted _circular_ 3 body problem" for use with our gas giants? Especially when they are known to be actually have wandered?

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

Fair question! It's definitely a reasonable approximation now, as the giants are on pretty circular orbits (0.049, 0.052, 0.047, 0.01). They definitely may have had higher eccentricities in the past (the exact dynamical history of the solar system is not known), but probably not extremely high and the CR3BP would still give us some insight into the scattering interactions.

[@picasso5168]

And you know what i studied about this orrt cloud it streatches 1.58 light years its the shell of the solar system thats 100,000 AU very mind boggling distance

[@fredneecher1746]

3:40 Since the existence of the Oort Cloud is still a hypothesis, you can't "know" anything. Better to say "think". "Why do we think the Oort Cloud exists?"

[@NorasGuidetotheGalaxy]

That depends on your perspective on epistemology!