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Oort, Jan Hendrik

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.04 sec.
Oort, Jan Hendrik (ōrt), 1900–1992, Dutch astronomer. He confirmed (1927) Bertil Lindblad's theory of the Milky Way galaxy's rotation. In the 1950s he and his colleagues used radio astronomical means to map the spiral-arm structure of the galaxy. Oort proposed (1950) that comets comet [Gr.,=longhaired], a small celestial body consisting mostly of dust and gases that moves in an elongated elliptical or nearly parabolic orbit around the sun. Comets visible from the earth can be seen for periods ranging from a few days to several months.
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 originate in a cloud of material (the

Oort cloud) orbiting the sun at great distance and that they are occasionally deflected into the inner solar system by gravitational perturbation from the passing of nearby stars.


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