New York – Scientists unlocked one of The many secrets of the solar system According to an unexpected source: a planetarium program open to the public on Monday.
At American Museum of Natural History Last fall, the experts worked hard to prepare “dating in the Milky Way”, a deep dive in our domestic galaxy shaped by the movements of the stars and other celestial objects.
They refined a scene with what is called the Oort cloudA region far beyond Pluto filled with frozen relics of the formation of the solar system. Compets can rush Towards the land of the cloud, but scientists have never maintained its true form.
One evening, looking at the Oort cloud scene, scientists noticed something strange projected on the dome of the planetarium.
“Why is there a spiral there?” said Jackie Fahety of the museum.
The interior section of the Oort cloud, made up of billions of comets, looked like a bar with two waving arms, similar to the shape of our galaxy of the Milky Way.
Scientists have long thought that the Oort cloud had the shape of a flat sphere or shell, distorted by the push and the attraction of other planets and the Milky Way itself. The Planetarium Show has suggested that a more complex form could be inside.
The museum contacted the researcher who provided the data from the Cloud Oort for the show, which was also surprised to see the spiral.
“It is a kind of charming accident that it really happened,” said David Nesvorny with the Southwest Research Institute.
Realizing that they had come across something new, the researchers published their results Earlier this year in the astrophysical newspaper.
The spiral is “a striking change in our understanding of the external solar system,” said planetary scientist Andre Izidoro with Rice University, who was not involved in the study, in an email.
The discovery, based on the data on the way in which celestial objects move and the use of simulations, will be difficult to confirm with observations. But learn more about the orbits of distant comets could give scientists indices, said Izidoro.
While assembling the spectacle of the planetarium, the museum experts did not expect a window on the interior functioning of the universe. The show, told by actor Pedro Pascal, presents many lively scenes that can capture the public more than the Oort cloud, said that Jon Parker of the museum – including an ongoing fusion of the Sagittarius mini galaxy with the Milky Way.
No matter how striking and beautiful the visuals of the show are, the museum has committed to make it scientifically exact. This is what created the perfect conditions to trip on something new, said Carter Emmart of the museum.
“You never know what you are going to find,” said Emmart.
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