Kuiper belt

hypothesised biggest dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt. Our Young Solar System written by Wayne Spencer specifically states “the Kuiper Belt objects we know of are actually much larger than comets” (Clayton, 2011). When in actual fact this probe has managed to uncover that not only does the Kuiper Belt house the already known dwarf planets and smaller icy rocks which could be the suspected key to unlocking short period comets. It is apparent that the Kuiper Belt does in fact hold objects roughly…

speck in the sky. The New Horizons mission had been carried out for a little under decade and is the first spacecraft to fly past Pluto. Its main purpose is to observe Pluto and its five moons. It has a secondary mission and that is to explore the Kuiper Belt. Pluto is probably the “planet” we know the least about, at least before the New Horizons space probe passed it a few months back. First discovered in 1930 by an astronomer named Clyde Tombaugh, Pluto was considered the ninth planet in our…

Figure 1 shows the location of the Kuiper Belt and some orbital properties of the Classical objects. At particular distances within the Kuiper Belt are the Resonant KBOs (RKBOs). They are given this name because their orbital periods are in resonance with Neptune (or at least very close) meaning that the number of times the object orbits the…

Pluto is known as “dwarf planet” in the planetary system. Also, it’s called the “Dwarf Planet” because of its size. It could be called a “plutoid” because it’s farther out into space. Pluto is occasionally closer to the sun than other times because of the oval orbit. Pluto has five moons, which are Kerberos, Styx, Nix, Hydra, and Charon. Because of the New Horizons information and pictures this data has helped scientists learn more about Pluto. Pluto was discovered in 1930 by an astronomer…

but for Tammy Kuipers, it was one of the most fulfilling choices she has ever made. Sure the pay isn’t great and you inevitably run into a few problematic kids, but like most teachers, she gets a sort of supernatural satisfaction from helping awkward children along in their development. I had the pleasure of taking calculus and statistics from her during my high school career, and her bubbly personality and dedication to her work left a great impression on me. At 5’5” Mrs. Kuipers may not look…

Discovered by Michael Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David Rabinowitz. Sedna was about 8.4 billion miles away from the sun when it was discovered in 2003 by three american astronomers, mike brown, chad trujillo, and david rainbowitz, who were searching for kuiper belt objects. Sedna has an orbit similar to an oort cloud comet, but 10 times smaller.…

The problem was that Pluto also has an inclined orbit, tilting 17 degrees relative to Earths plane.” (Zachar, Kendler) Between Mars and Jupiter, inside of the Kuiper Belt, there are numerous objects that are larger than the planet Pluto. Some even have their own moons. Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta were discovered inside the Kuiper Belt, all with relative spherical shapes. This would increase the number of planets to over twenty. With the discovery of a possible tenth planet, astronomers had to…

The remaining 95% of the flyby data is still aboard the spacecraft and won’t reach the ground until late 2016 (Stern, S. Alan). Following the flyby mission to Pluto-Charon, the New Horizons spacecraft will continue through the Kuiper Belt, with additional flybys of Kuiper Belt objects (Riddle,…

Pluto We know Pluto as the dwarf planet that had its planetary status revoked. We know it as the distant 9th planet in our solar system. We know it as the planet billions of miles away from the sun. Even though all of these facts about pluto might be right, we do not know so much about this glorious planet. Pluto is a dwarf planet that was discovered at the beginning of the twentieth century. Over the years, there has been much debate over whether or not we should qualify Pluto as a planet,…

Astronomers from the International Astronomical Union (IAU), an organization that functions as an international consensus marker in astronomy, were assigned the task of voting on the definition of planets. Some have criticized that this discussion amongst scientists was not without political and non-scientific emotions or nostalgia. One rendition of the definition would have kept Pluto as a planet and included Eris and Ceres, boosting the number of planets to twelve. Still another recommendation…