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On this day in 1900 – April 28th – Dutch astronomer Jan Oort was born.

Oort made major contributions to the understanding of the Milky Way and was a pioneer in radio astronomy. He realized that the orbits of comets "implied there was a lot more solar system than the region occupied by the planets." The Oort cloud of comets that surrounds the Solar System was named for him.

Mona Evans
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