2006-09-13 15:21:31 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
more exactly what is THE Kuiper Belt
a region out side the regular planets, but still controlled by our suns gravity..
Pluto and other objects are said to be from the Kuiper belt
2006-09-13 15:26:41 · answer #1 · answered by onemadscientist 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Kuiper Belt:
The Kuiper Belt is often called our Solar System's 'final frontier.' This disk-shaped region of icy debris is about 4.5 to 7.5 billion km (2.8 billion to 4.6 billion miles), 30 to 50 Astronomical Units (AU). from our Sun. Its existence confirmed only a decade ago, the Kuiper Belt and its collection of icy objects - KBOs - are an emerging area of research in planetary science.
No spacecraft has ever traveled to the Kuiper Belt, but NASA's New Horizons mission, planned to arrive at Pluto in 2015, might be able to penetrate farther into the Kuiper Belt to study one of these mysterious objects.
2006-09-14 06:20:38 · answer #2 · answered by Divya 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Kuiper is the guy who formulated the theory that there is this belt of asteroidal bodies out there that may contain millions of objects.
Pluto is believed to be one. Also Chiron, a small body that swings almost into Saturn's orbit is a Kuiper belt object, as most likely is Charon (confusing names), the satellite of Pluto.
Many of the smaller satellites of Saturn may well be captured Kuiper belt objects.
Pluto is more at home within the company of Kuiper belt objects. he was never really fulfilled as a planet.
2006-09-13 22:51:54 · answer #3 · answered by nick s 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Kuiper Belt:
The Kuiper Belt is often called our Solar System's 'final frontier.' This disk-shaped region of icy debris is about 4.5 to 7.5 billion km (2.8 billion to 4.6 billion miles), 30 to 50 Astronomical Units (AU). from our Sun. Its existence confirmed only a decade ago, the Kuiper Belt and its collection of icy objects - KBOs - are an emerging area of research in planetary science
2006-09-14 06:59:46 · answer #4 · answered by K Ban 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hi. Not to disagree with the other answers (although I do this a lot) the Kuiper belt is probably not unique to our star system. And I believe the Oort clout (further out than the Kuiper belt) may extend to other star system's Oort clouds. I have a hunch that interstellar space is chock full of chunks of ice.
2006-09-13 22:47:19 · answer #5 · answered by Cirric 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
An area where many small celestial bodies orbit the sun, sorta just outside the orbit of Neptune. The sorta is because many Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) have highly eccentric orbits that may be inside Neptunes at some points.
It's very much like the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~jewitt/kb.html
has tons of information about it.
2006-09-13 22:44:05 · answer #6 · answered by Bob 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Kuiper belt is the thing that holds up Mr. Kuiper's belt.
(Sorry, couldn't resist.)
2006-09-13 23:03:34 · answer #7 · answered by Nemesis 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Come on, nemesis you almost had it. It holds up Mr. Kuiper's pants! Pants! If you correct your answer I'll delete mine.
2006-09-14 00:10:14 · answer #8 · answered by Tekguy 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Also agree with above and want to add that they are short period comets. Oort cloud objects are thought to be long period comets.
2006-09-13 22:56:33 · answer #9 · answered by iMi 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋