The Invisible 1.5 Light-Year Wall Around Our Solar System

This video is a part of a series looking at the Outer Solar System. The Oort Cloud is believed to be a vast cosmic shell at the edge of our Solar System that astronomers have never directly seen. The colossal structure contains trillions of icy bodies and stretches nearly a light-year radius from our Sun, taking light weeks to reach its inner edge. Within, ancient chunks of ice larger than mountains drift in endless orbits, occasionally disturbed by passing stars that send them plunging toward the inner solar system as comets and potential hazards to Earth. So if no one has ever seen it, how do we know it even exists? In addition to a general overview of the Oort Cloud, I’ll address the reasons why some scientists question its existence.

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0:00 Does the Oort Cloud exist?
1:18 Solar system debris
3:20 Observing comets
6:47 How did the Oort Cloud form?
8:08 Visit from another star
9:42 How far away is the Oort Cloud?
12:33 Grounds for suspicion
13:39 Why can’t we see it?
14:57 Up for debate

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Credits:
Writer: Michelle Babcock
Editor: Frame Forge
Thumbnail Designer: Peter Sheppard
Channel Manager: Georgina Brenner
Executive Producer: Raquel Taylor
Creator of Astrum: Alex McColgan

With special thanks to:
NASA/ESO/ESA

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