• Question: The Oort Cloud, if it is this massive cloud of comets why don't they reflect light or anything back to the telescopes from Earth that see into the furthest distances?

    Asked by tosty55 to Aggelos, Andrew, Eileen, Naomi, Shane on 14 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Andrew Jackson

      Andrew Jackson answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      Wow. I have never heard of the Oort Cloud!

    • Photo: Aggelos Zacharopoulos

      Aggelos Zacharopoulos answered on 15 Nov 2012:

      @tosty55
      never heard of the “Oort Cloud”. But how do we know it is there if we can’t see it in the telescopes?

    • Photo: Naomi Elster

      Naomi Elster answered on 17 Nov 2012:

      The Oort Cloud was a theory suggested by a Dutch astronomer (Jans Oort) that a giant cloud of comets might lie somewhere between the sun and one of its sister stars. It is still only a theory – it might be there or it might not.

    • Photo: Eileen Diskin

      Eileen Diskin answered on 18 Nov 2012:

      I hadn’t heard of it either until this question. Just did a bit of reading about it, sounds really cool! I learned that it was actually originally and idea suggested by someone else – a guy called Ernst Opik…but I don’t know why he doesn’t get any of the credit?!

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