Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A swarm of comets orbiting the sun at a distance of one to two light-years, proposed as a source of comets that pass near the sun.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun (astronomy) a hypothetical huge collection of comets orbiting the sun far beyond the orbit of Pluto; perturbations (as by other stars) can upset a comet's orbit and may send it tumbling toward the sun
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[After Jan Hendrix Oort, (1900–1992), Dutch astronomer.]
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