The Oort cloud is believed to be a vast shell surrounding the Solar System, possibly over a light-year in radius. Across such a vast distance, the gradient of the Milky Way's gravitational field plays a far more noticeable role. Because of this gradient, galactic tides may then deform an otherwise spherical Oort cloud, stretching the cloud in the direction of the galactic centre and compressing it along the other two axes, just as the Earth distends in response to the gravity of the Moon.