Kuiper belt - Wikipedia
WEBThe Kuiper belt (/ ˈ k aɪ p ər / KY-pər) [1] is a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending from the orbit of Neptune at 30 astronomical units (AU) to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. [2] It is similar to the asteroid belt, but is far larger—20 times as wide and 20–200 times as massive.
The Kuiper Belt - Science@NASA
WEBThe Kuiper Belt is a doughnut-shaped region of icy bodies extending far beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is home to Pluto and Arrokoth. Both worlds were visited by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft. There may be millions of other icy worlds in the Kuiper Belt that were left over from the formation of our solar system.
10 Things to Know About the Kuiper Belt - NASA Science
WEBDec 14, 2018 · The Kuiper Belt is one of the largest structures in our solar system — others being the Oort Cloud, the heliosphere and the magnetosphere of Jupiter. Its overall shape is like a puffed-up disk, or donut.
Kuiper Belt: Facts - NASA Science
WEBThe Kuiper Belt is a large region in the cold, outer reaches of our solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune. It’s sometimes called the “third zone” of the solar system. Astronomers think there are millions of small, icy objects in this region – including hundreds of thousands that are larger than 60 miles (100 […]
Kuiper belt | Definition, Location, Size, & Facts | Britannica
WEBSep 15, 2024 · Kuiper belt, flat ring of icy small bodies that revolve around the Sun beyond the orbit of the planet Neptune. It was named for the Dutch American astronomer Gerard P. Kuiper and comprises hundreds of millions of objects—presumed to be leftovers from the formation of the outer planets—whose orbits lie close to the plane of the solar system .
What Is the Kuiper Belt? | NASA Space Place – NASA Science for …
WEBSep 17, 2024 · The Short Answer: The Kuiper Belt is a ring of icy bodies just outside of Neptune’s orbit. Pluto is the most famous Kuiper Belt Object. The Sun is at the center of our solar system. It is orbited by eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. But what’s past Neptune?
NASA’s New Horizons Team Publishes First Kuiper Belt Flyby …
WEBMay 16, 2019 · NASA’s New Horizons mission team has published the first profile of the farthest world ever explored, a planetary building block and Kuiper Belt object called 2014 MU69. Analyzing just the first sets of data gathered during the New Horizons spacecraft’s New Year’s 2019 flyby of MU69 (nicknamed Ultima Thule) the mission team quickly ...
What is the Kuiper Belt? | Space
WEBMar 2, 2023 · The Kuiper Belt is a collection of small, icy bodies that orbit the sun farther away than Neptune. It's very similar to the asteroid belt, but colder and farther away from the sun.
What Is The Kuiper Belt? - Universe Today
WEBJun 16, 2015 · The Kuiper Belt (also known as the Edgeworth–Kuiper belt) is a region of the Solar System that exists beyond the eight major planets, extending from the orbit of Neptune (at 30 AU) to...
Kuiper Belt: In Depth - NASA Science
WEBNov 30, 2017 · The Kuiper Belt is a disc-shaped region beyond Neptune that extends from about 30 to 55 astronomical units (compared to Earth which is one astronomical unit, or AU, from the sun). This distant region is probably populated with hundreds of thousands of icy bodies larger than 100 km (62 miles) across and an estimated trillion or more comets.
Skip to content