Kuiper belt

Artist's rendering of the Kuiper Belt and hypothetical more distant Oort cloud

The Kuiper belt is an area of the Solar System beyond the orbit of Neptune (at 30 astronomical units) to 50 AU from the Sun.

The objects within the Kuiper Belt together with the members of the scattered disk beyond, are together called trans-Neptunian.

Many objects such as dwarf planets in the Kuiper belt are much bigger than the ones in the asteroid belt and are round. At least some Kuiper belt objects are icebound.

The first objects in the Kuiper belt to be found were Pluto and Charon (moon) but the belt was only identified and named in 1992 when more Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) were found. A few thousand have since been discovered and more than 70,000 KBOs over 100 km (62 mi) in diameter are thought to exist.

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Kuiper Belt Media

Charon and Pluto: Strikingly Different Worlds*A composite of enhanced color images of Pluto (lower right) and Charon (upper left), taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft as it passed through the Pluto system on July 14, 2015. This image highlights the striking differences between Pluto and Charon. The color and bright
Astronomer Gerard Kuiper, after whom the Kuiper belt is named
Julio A. Fernandez (recortado).jpg

In 1980, astronomer Julio Fernandez predicted the existence of a belt. It has been said that because the words "Kuiper" and "comet belt" appeared in the opening sentence of Fernandez's paper, this hypothetical region was referred to as the "Kuiper belt".
Mauna Kea Summit 2021-06-16 33 (cropped).jpg

Telescopes atop Mauna Kea. The Kuiper belt was discovered with UH88, which is the fourth from the left.
KBO diagram eccentricity.png

The various dynamical classes of trans-Neptunian objects.
KBOs and resonances.png

Distribution of cubewanos (blue), Resonant trans-Neptunian objects (red), Sednoids (yellow) and scattered objects (grey)
Orbit classification (schematic of semi-major axes)
Histogram of the semi-major axes of Kuiper belt objects with inclinations above and below 5 degrees. Spikes from the plutinos and the 'kernel' are visible at 39–40 AU and 44 AU.
Simulation showing outer planets and Kuiper belt: (a) before Jupiter/Saturn 1:2 resonance, (b) scattering of Kuiper belt objects into the Solar System after the orbital shift of Neptune, (c) after ejection of Kuiper belt bodies by Jupiter