What is and where is the KUIPER BELT
The Solar system it does not end abruptly in the orbit of Pluto, but extends beyond it. To discover what is the kuiper belt we must travel to the furthest reaches of the solar system, beyond Neptune and Pluto. From a PROFESSOR we embark on this fascinating adventure through space, will you join us?
Until Arrokoth (2014 MU69) the most distant object explored by a spacecraft, on the border of the known solar system. There exists a vast region of the cold and dark solar system, it is the mysterious Kuiper belt that holds the keys to understanding how our solar system formed.
Index
- What is the Kuiper Belt - Summary
- What kinds of stars make up the Kuiper belt?
- Where is the Kuiper belt located?
What is the Kuiper Belt - Summary.
The kuiper belt is a region is donut shape (in geometry these forms are called Tor) that contains millions of small solid frozen objects. These objects collectively are called Kuiper belt bodies (KBO's for its acronym in English).
It is a region full of millions of celestial bodies that could have given rise to a planet, yet Neptune's gravity caused a distortion in this region of space that prevented these small objects from clumping together to form a large planet. In this sense, the Kuiper belt bears a certain resemblance to the main belt of asteroids of Solar system which is around the orbit of Jupiter.
Among the celestial bodies found in the Kuiper belt the best known is the dwarf planetPluto. It is the largest object in the Kuiper belt although, more recently, a new dwarf planet was discovered (Eris) within the Kuiper belt that is similar in size.
Today, the Kuiper belt is the true frontier of space, very little known and explored. Although Pluto was discovered in 1930 and the existence of a belt of icy bodies had been predicted beyond of Neptune, it must be taken into account that the first asteroid in this region of the solar system was discovered in 1992.
The study and knowledge of the Kuiper belt is of vital importance to understand the origins and formation of the solar system.
Image: Slideshare
What kinds of stars make up the Kuiper belt?
At the moment more than 2000 Kuiper belt objects (KBO's) have been cataloged, but they represent only a small fraction of the total objects that populate this region of the solar system.
KBO’s are comets and asteroids. Although they are similar, comets and asteroids differ in their composition. Comets are celestial bodies made up of dust, rocks, and ice (frozen gases); while the asteroids, are made up of rocks and metals. These objects are the remnants of the formation of the solar system.
Many of the KBO’s that make up the Kuiper belt have moons orbiting around you or are binary objects formed by two bodies of similar sizes that orbit around a point (common center of mass). Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Quaoar are some of the objects in the Kuiper belt that have a moon.
The total mass of the bodies that currently form the Kuiper belt is only 10% of the Earth's mass. However, the original material that was part of the Kuiper belt is believed to be between 7 and 10 times the mass of the Earth and the objects that formed it came from the remains of the formation of the 4 giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune).
Causes of mass loss of Kuiper belt bodies
The mass loss of this belt of frozen bodies is due to the Kuiper belt it suffers from an erosion that destroys it. The small comets and asteroids that make it up collide with each other and break apart into smaller KBO’s and dust that is blown beyond the solar system by solar winds or into the system solar.
Since the Kuiper belt is slowly eroding, this region of the solar system is considered to be one of the areas where comets originate. The other area of origin for comets is the Oors cloud.
Comets originating in the Kuiper belt are produced when the fragments that form after a KBO collision are attracted by the gravitational force of Neptune and pushed into the solar system. On their journey towards the sun, these small fragments are trapped by Jupiter's gravity in small orbits that last 20 years or less. They are called short-period comets or comets of the Jupiter family.
Image: Astronomy for all
Where is the Kuiper belt located?
As we have already commented, the Kuiper belt is located in the outermost part of the solar system and within this region is the orbit of Pluto. It is one of the largest regions in the solar system.
The nearest edge of the Kuiper belt is in the orbit of Neptune, at about 30 AU (AU is the astronomical unit of distance and is equivalent to 150 million kilometers, which is approximately the distance between the earth and the sun), and the inner edge of the Kuiper belt was foundabout 50 AU from the sun.
Partially overlapping with the Kuiper belt, a region known as the scattered disk that extends up to a distance of 1000 AU from the sun.
What is the Oort cloud?
The Kuiper belt should not be confused with the Oort cloud. The Oort cloud is in an even more distant region of the solar system, in the farthest zone, it is estimated that it would be at a distance of between 2000 and 5000 AU from the sun.
It is also formed by frozen objects like the Kuiper belt and is shaped like a sphere. It would be like a large shell that would contain the sun and all the planets and celestial bodies that make up the solar system, including the Kuiper belt. Although its existence has been predicted, it has not been directly observed.
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Bibliography
- Joel Gabas Masip. (2018)The solar system. Barcelona: RBA Editores NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
- Jane X. LuuDavid Jewitt (1996) The Kuiper belt. Barcelona: Research and Science. Scientific Press.