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Gerard Peter Kuiper (/ ˈ k aɪ p ər / KY-pər; born Gerrit Pieter Kuiper, Dutch: [ˈɣɛrɪt ˈpitər ˈkœypər]; 7 December 1905 – 23 December 1973) was a Dutch-American astronomer, planetary scientist, selenographer, author and professor. The Kuiper belt is named after him. Kuiper is considered by many to be the father of modern ...
The most widely accepted model of planetary formation is known as the nebular hypothesis. This model posits that, 4.6 billion years ago, the Solar System was formed by the gravitational collapse of a giant molecular cloud spanning several light-years. Many stars, including the Sun, were formed within this collapsing cloud. The gas that formed ...
1951 – Gerard Kuiper argues for an annular reservoir of comets between 40 and 100 astronomical units from the Sun having formed early in the Solar System's evolution, but he did not think that such a belt still existed today. [176] Decades later, this region was named after him, the Kuiper belt.
The Kuiper belt beyond Neptune, followed by the scattered disc. The Oort cloud in the boundaries of the Solar System. The biggest of these minor bodies are regarded as dwarf planets: Ceres in the asteroid belt, and Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Makemake, Gonggong, Quaoar, Sedna, and Orcus (along with other candidates) in the Kuiper belt.
The timeline of discovery of Solar System planets and their natural satellites charts the progress of the discovery of new bodies over history. Each object is listed in chronological order of its discovery (multiple dates occur when the moments of imaging, observation, and publication differ), identified through its various designations (including temporary and permanent schemes), and the ...
The Gerard P. Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) was a national facility operated by NASA to support research in infrared astronomy.The observation platform was a highly modified Lockheed C-141A Starlifter jet transport aircraft (s/n: 6110, registration: N714NA, [1] callsign: NASA 714 [1]) with a range of 6,000 nautical miles (11,000 km), capable of conducting research operations at altitudes ...
In his work, The Republic (X.616E–617B), the Greek philosopher Plato provided the oldest known statement defining the order of the planets in Greek astronomical tradition. His list, in order of the nearest to the most distant from the Earth, was as follows: the Moon, Sun, Venus, Mercury , Mars, Jupiter , Saturn , and the fixed stars.
The Kuiper belt was named after Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Kuiper, regarded by many as the father of modern planetary science, though his role in hypothesising it has been heavily contested. In 1951, he proposed the existence of what is now called the Kuiper Belt , a disk-shaped region of minor planets outside the orbit of Neptune , which ...