Visiting the Oort Cloud

We as humans have yet to visit The Oort Cloud. We haven't yet had the chance to observe any of these icy bodies up close so there is a lot of mystery surrounding the Oort Cloud. The logistics of actually sending a probe out there to explore are probably not feasible at this time. It would take a lot of fuel to actually make it and would need a great deal of funding to bankroll such a mission.

However there is some hope that we can learn a little bit about the Oort Cloud in conjunction with the New Horizons mission that launched in 2006 to visit the Kuiper belt by 2026. Hopefully there will be some clues we can gather from observing the Kuiper Belt up close and personal.

Our galaxy holds many wonders and even though we might not visit the Oort Cloud in our lifetime there is still a chance we can learn more about it. Technology is progressing at a very high rate and even though a visit to the Oort Cloud might not happen we still have a shot at discovering new evidence we can use to fully understand how the Oort Cloud was formed and the mysteries surrounding it.

Work Cited

"Solar System Exploration: Missions: New Horizons."Solar System Exploration: NASA. N.p.. Web. 12 Apr 2014. <https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?Sort=Target&Target=KBOs&MCode=PKB>.

Hadhazy, Adam. "Greatest Mysteries of The Oort Cloud." Live Science. N.p.. Web. 12 Apr 2014. <http://www.livescience.com/33515-oort-cloud-mysteries-universe-cosmos.html>.

Dinerman, Taylor. "Hitching a Ride to the Oort Cloud."The Space Review. N.p.. Web. 13 Apr 2014. <http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1189/1>.