Accidental discovery at New York planetarium unlocks secret into universe’s inner workings
By Adithi Ramakrishnan, Associated Press Excerpt: Scientists have unlocked one of the solar system’s many secrets from an unexpected source: a planetarium show opening to the public on Monday. At the American Museum of Natural History last fall, experts were hard at work preparing “Encounters in the Milky Way,” .... They were fine-tuning a scene featuring what’s known as the Oort Cloud, a region far beyond Pluto filled with icy relics from the solar system’s formation. ...scientists have never glimpsed its true shape. One evening while watching the Oort Cloud scene, scientists noticed something strange projected onto the planetarium’s dome. “Why is there a spiral there?” ...The inner section of the Oort Cloud, made of billions of comets, resembled a bar with two waving arms, similar to the shape of our Milky Way galaxy. ...Scientists had long thought the Oort Cloud was shaped like a sphere or flattened shell, warped by the push and pull of other planets and the Milky Way itself. Th...