1 Kuiper Belt Objects
259 1 The Soul of the Sky Kuiper Belt Objects Just out beyond the range of the known outer planets lies the Kuiper Belt, the newly discovered source of short period (periodic) comets, and as it is now known, so much more. This belt is actually a cloud of gas, ice, dust and debris, which when it heaps up enough mass to be gravitationally perturbed other solid objects nearby an orbit forms. Such perturbing influences would be exerted by Neptune, its moon, Triton, and Pluto. Actually Pluto is a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) as is its moon, Charon. Astronomer Gerard Kuiper speculated as to existence of the Kuiper belt in 1951, much to the amusement of his skeptical colleagues. But as Chiron came to light in 1977, as well as Pluto’s moon Charon the following year, it became evidently clear that something else was out there. Nothing much happened from 1977 until 1992 when a second centaur, Pholus, and the first formal Kuiper Belt Object, 1992 QB1 (August 30, 1992), now minor planet 15760, were found. To the amazement of astonished and previously disbelieving astronomers, Kuiper was right. Conjecture now proposes that hundreds of thousands of Kuiper Belt Objects exist, albeit many extremely small in size, ice balls covered in reddish organic soot. Some suggestions estimate 60,000 KBO’s could be found per square degree! A plethora of bodies to yet be encountered, await. The Kuiper Belt began as a controversial idea, not only as to concept, but who figured it out first. It is widely claimed that the concept of the Kuiper Belt first came to Gerard Kuiper.
[Show full text]