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The Kuiper belt (/ ˈ k aɪ p ər / KY-pər) [1] is a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending from the orbit of Neptune at 30 astronomical units (AU) to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. [2] It is similar to the asteroid belt, but is far larger—20 times as wide and 20–200 times as massive.
The Grand tack hypothesis explains how in the Solar System giant planets migrated in unique way to form the Solar System belts and near circular orbit of planets around the Sun. [10] [11] [9] The Solar System's belts are one key parameters for a Solar System that can support complex life, as circular orbits are a parameter needed for the ...
The Kuiper belt is a great ring of debris similar to the asteroid belt, but consisting mainly of objects composed primarily of ice. [195] It extends between 30 and 50 AU from the Sun. It is composed mainly of small Solar System bodies, although the largest few are probably large enough to be dwarf planets. [ 196 ]
There are about 4,000 known comets in our Solar System so far and most of them come from beyond Pluto, in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. One of such, called C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, will make ...
The dust production rate of the comet was very high (up to 2.0 × 10 6 kg/s), [37] which may have made the inner coma optically thick. [38] Based on the properties of the dust grains – high temperature, high albedo and strong 10 μm silicate emission feature – the astronomers concluded the dust grains are smaller than observed in any other ...
(55636) 2002 TX 300 is a bright Kuiper belt object in the outer Solar System estimated to be about 286 kilometres (178 mi) in diameter. [4] It is a large member of the Haumea family that was discovered on 15 October 2002 by the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program. [1]
The name "Kuiper belt" was given to the region in the 1980s; [9] it was first used in print by Scott Tremaine in 1988. [10]: 191 In the 1960s, Kuiper helped identify landing sites on the Moon for the Apollo program. [a] Kuiper discovered several binary stars which received "Kuiper numbers" to identify them, such as KUI 79.
Planet nine may be orbiting far from the Sun, at the edge of our solar system. Astronomers, seeing odd irregularities in the orbits of the outer planets suspect another, unknown, planet may orbit ...