Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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.
486958 Arrokoth (provisional designation 2014 MU 69; formerly nicknamed Ultima Thule [a]) is a trans-Neptunian object located in the Kuiper belt.Arrokoth became the farthest and most primitive object in the Solar System visited by a spacecraft when the NASA space probe New Horizons conducted a flyby on 1 January 2019.
Pluto Kuiper Express was an interplanetary space probe that was proposed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) scientists and engineers and under development by NASA.The spacecraft was intended to be launched to study Pluto and its moon Charon, along with one or more other Kuiper belt objects (KBOs).
15810 Arawn (provisional designation 1994 JR 1) is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) from the inner regions of the Kuiper belt, approximately 133 kilometres (83 mi) in diameter. It belongs to the plutinos, the most populous class of resonant TNOs.
The asteroid and comet belts orbit the Sun from the inner rocky planets into outer parts of the Solar System, interstellar space. [16] [17] [18] An astronomical unit, or AU, is the distance from Earth to the Sun, which is approximately 150 billion meters (93 million miles). [19]
New Horizons is traveling through the Kuiper belt; it is 60.99 AU (9.12 billion km; 5.67 billion mi) from Earth and 60.37 AU (9.03 billion km; 5.61 billion mi) from the Sun as of November 2024. [27] NASA has announced it is to extend operations for New Horizons until the spacecraft exits the Kuiper belt, which is expected to occur between 2028 ...
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune.It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun.
(307261) 2002 MS 4 (provisional designation 2002 MS 4) is a large trans-Neptunian object in the Kuiper belt, which is a region of icy planetesimals beyond Neptune.It was discovered on 18 June 2002 by Chad Trujillo and Michael Brown during their search for bright, Pluto-sized Kuiper belt objects at Palomar Observatory.