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Kuiper Belt
by Daemon

The Kuiper Belt is an area in space and is a lot like the asteroid belt except it is located between Neptune and Pluto. It is made of super comets and asteroids and small icy bodies. The Kuiper Belt is 300 times bigger than the asteroid belt. Over 35,000 KBO's (Kuiper Belt Objects) are 100 km in diameter. As you may already know Gerald Kuiper discovered the Kuiper in 1951. The idea first came from K.E Edgeworth in 1949. In 1980, reliable information reinforced the Kuiper Belt's existence. Pluto is part of the Kuiper Belt, not only that it is the largest member of the Kuiper.

KBO's probably contain ice, rocks, and dust. It has been estimated that 100 billion KBO's are larger than 0.6 miles (or 1 kilometer). Some KBO's are even large enough to be called dwarf planets. The most important discovery made about the Kuiper was at the University of Hawaii with a 2.2 meter telescope that confirmed the existence of the Kuiper Belt. Most of the research was being done with the telescope at the University of Hawaii. In 1992, 70 KBO's were found 30 to 50 AU (astronomical units) from the sun. One KBO reaches 135 AU from the sun. It is hard to study KBO's because they are very faint unless you have a telescope. They have just found out that KBO's can come in different colors anywhere from blue to red. The Kuiper Belt has and is affected by Jupiter and Neptune. The Kuiper can also be called the Kuiper Disk or Edgeworth Kuiper Belt.
KBO's are survivors from the solar nebula. The Kuiper Belt is believed to be the source of most short period comets. The Kuiper has special areas called mean motion resonances. These resonances act like stable oasis. Classical KBO's are outside the resonances and are characterized as near circular orbits. They are primordial planetesimals that somehow preserve their original orbits. Scattered KBO's have very large and elliptical orbits. They live in clumps separated by empty space. They can be classified into resonant, classical, or scattered.
New Horizons is going to be a one way journey to the Kuiper and they are going to unlock a very great secret. It will give information on the properties, geology, interior make-up and atmosphere on pluto. KBO's may be in a direction going towards the sun.

The Hubble Space Telescope helps us with information on Kuiper by allowing them to number and get the sizes of Kuiper Belt Objects. Objects confirm that Kuiper is real but a small percentage of KBO's are called binaries. Veillet says, "More than one percent of the growing five hundred KBO's are binaries. "The difference is binary KBO's pivot around a center of gravity." Some astronomers estimate 200 million comets are in the Kuiper Belt.

It is known that Neptune's moons can be captured by Kuiper Belt objects. Centaur objects are known to be former Kuiper Belt parts. Sedna's orbit is in between the Kuiper Belt. It is known that 800 objects, in the Kuiper Belt, can be trans-neptunian objects.
 

Credits:

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/solarsys.htm
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast13sep_1.htm
http://www.solarviews.com/eng/kuiper.htm
http://www.nineplanets.org/kboc.html
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=KBOs
http://www.solarviews.com/eng/kuiperpr.htm
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/faculty/jewitt/kb.html
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?Sort=Target&Target=KBOs&MCode=PKB
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/comets/Kuiper_belt.html
http://www.solstation.com/stars/kuiper.htm
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/solarsystem/kuiper.shtml
http://www.boulder.swri.edu/ekonews/
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http://www.answers.com/topic/kuiper-belt
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http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/88inch/2.2-meter-public.htm
http://www.worldbookonline.com/wb/Article?id=ar749181
Kuiper Belt pic: http://www.solarviews.com/eng/kuiper.htm
Kuiper Belt pic:http://www.solstation.com/stars/kuiper.htm
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~jewitt/kb/kb.con.html
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/solarsystem/kuiper.shtml
http://www.solarviews.com/cap/index/kuiperbelt1.html