Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun astronomy A roughly spherical region of space from 50,000 to 100,000 astronomical units (approximately 1 light year) from the sun; supposedly the source of most comets.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Named after Dutch astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort.

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Examples

  • Just beyond that is something called the Oort Cloud which is supposedly the area of space where a lot of the comets that we see live most of their lives, but occasionally they come into the Sun.

    Universe Today 2008

  • Most of their days, comets float anonymously in a halo called the Oort Cloud, a backwoods of space way past Pluto.

    The Return Of The Great Comet 2008

  • The Oort Cloud was a nebulous array of cometary bodies occupying a space beginning roughly at the orbit of Pluto and extending halfway to the nearest star.

    Spin 2005

  • The comet was born billions of years ago and trillions of miles away in the cold comet nursery called the Oort Cloud, and streams of the comet's dusty progeny have returned to Earth once or twice every 60 years or so when their orbits come under the influence of Saturn and Jupiter, Jenniskens said.

    SFGate: Top News Stories Chronicle dperlman@sfchronicle.com (David Perlman 2011

  • The giant lump of ice and dust originated from a frozen cloud of comets surrounding our solar system called the Oort Cloud, but at some point was knocked out of its orbit and was sent careering closer to the sun.

    Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news 2010

  • The giant lump of ice and dust originated from a frozen cloud of comets surrounding our solar system called the Oort Cloud, but at some point was knocked out of its orbit and was sent careering closer to the sun.

    Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news 2010

  • Comet Sliding Spring passed as close as 1.2 astronomical units from Earth on October 7, 2009, according to NASA, after spending billions of years in the so-called Oort Cloud, a spherical collection of comets outside our solar system.

    CNET News.com 2010

  • Comet Sliding Spring passed as close as 1.2 astronomical units from Earth on October 7, 2009, according to NASA, after spending billions of years in the so-called Oort Cloud, a spherical collection of comets outside our solar system.

    CNET News.com 2010

  • Comet Sliding Spring passed as close as 1.2 astronomical units from Earth on October 7, 2009, according to NASA, after spending billions of years in the so-called Oort Cloud, a spherical collection of comets outside our solar system.

    CNET News.com 2010

  • Yet Jupiter helps protect us, he said, from an even more dangerous band of comets coming from the so-called Oort Cloud, a vast spherical deep-freeze surrounding the solar system as far as a light-year from the Sun.

    Free Internet Press 2009

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