This fountain is an ode to astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort. He thought that a "cloud" of billions of comet-like objects is moving around our solar system. This was a breakthrough in astronomy.
The Oort cloud was designed by Jean-Michel Othoniel from France.
The fountain is a tribute to the world-famous, Franeker-born astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort. His hypothesis that a 'cloud' of billions of comet-like objects orbits our solar system represented a breakthrough in astronomy. The fountain is constructed as a series of waterfalls cascading from a bowl into the basin along a vertical chain of dark pearls. One of the pearls is silver, like the moon, another is gilded, the color of the sun. The 'Oort cloud' itself is a mist of fine droplets falling from a golden latticework into the bowl.
The fountain pays homage to the world-famous astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort, who was born in Franeker. He postulated that our solar system is surrounded by a "cloud" of billions of comet-like objects. The fountain appears as a series of waterfalls that flow vertically into the basin from a bowl along a dark string of pearls.