Fluke discovery at planetarium leads to revelation about mysterious cosmic cloud: "It's kind of a freak accident"

Scientists have unlocked one of the solar system's many secrets from an unexpected source: a planetarium show.

At the American Museum of Natural History last fall, experts were hard at work preparing "Encounters in the Milky Way," a deep dive into our home galaxy shaped by the movements of stars and other celestial objects.

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. Comets can hurtle toward Earth from the cloud, but scientists have never glimpsed its true shape.