Oort Cloud

I first learned about the Oort Cloud when I was designing the solar system exhibits for Challenger Learning Center in Woodstock, Illinois. A theoretical envelope encompassing our solar system, the Oort Cloud is thought to contain trillions of icy, rocky fragments, material from other stars, as well as asteroids and comets. Perilously far from the sun, these fragments are only tenuously held in orbit by the sun’s gravity. It is understood that many earthbound meteors have originated in the Oort Cloud, making this boundary formation as dangerous as it is mysterious.

Since it is not directly observable, the envelope of the Oort cloud inspired a layered series of drawings expressing this obscure system in an abstract way. Viewers will note a set of graphic tendencies within the drawings, suggesting overlapping configurations of orbs, rotational pathways, gravity waves, roughly concentric fluctuations, and an overall instability of fragmented parts.