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 exact shape of the Oort cloud and how it is affected by forces beyond our solar system have, so far, remained mysterious. Now, researchers have developed a new model that suggests the inner structure of the Oort cloud may look like a spiral disk. They published their findings Feb. 16 on the preprint server arXiv, meaning the work has not been peer-reviewed yet.
