Talk:1297: Oort Cloud

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Reading the Wikipedia page on the Oort Cloud didn't help me understand the joke. I don't know if it has anything to do with comets, or the asteroids getting smashed up by them. 108.162.238.117 05:15, 29 November 2013 (UTC)

The asteroid becomes a cost after being severely burnt by the sun. It warns the other asteroid not to go over there. 108.162.221.55 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
Which, the title text indicates, is a warning that's utterly ignored... (Also being "right back" indicates a slower perceived thought process. As is probably the case for anything out there in such cold(-ish) depths of space.) 141.101.99.229 11:05, 29 November 2013 (UTC)
What does "becomes a cost" mean? is that a slang expression? 12:02, 29 November 2013 (UTC)
I think it's supposed to be "comet". 173.245.52.228 14:09, 29 November 2013 (UTC)
No, I think he means ghost. All thats left is a faint image after all. 141.101.99.214 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

At least according to my freshman year science teacher, the Oort Cloud is just a theory, and hasn't been proven. Perhaps that should be made more clear? -- Wasda (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)


What's here looks exactly in line with current comet theory: A comet is "perturbed" by interactions with other objects out there, and at that distance the sun is a very bright dot, no more. On return (chancy, based on both/either burning up or being in a no return hyperbolic orbit), what has come back is fragmented and with two tails. What I'm not seeing is the second level joke - it's in the movie "I'm going to check out x" form, but I don't get the specific quote. FractalgeekUK (talk) 13:55, 29 November 2013 (UTC)


According to http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/timeline-of-comet-ison-s-dangerous-journey, ISON's journey to earth from the Oort cloud started "At least a million years ago." So I'm going to edit "many thousand years later" to "several million years later". In other news, I recently played "Das Rad" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-7y3B8DjGw) for my kids and this comic really reminded me of that Oscar-nominated short. I hate lichen!  :-) Tovodeverett (talk) 15:10, 29 November 2013 (UTC)


What's with the "Several million years later" context in the transcription?!? The distances might be vast and all, but i doubt the timeframe is that long... -- 173.245.51.210

See the comment right above yours. Diszy (talk) 18:03, 29 November 2013 (UTC)