The Solar System - Belts, Tails, Showers - Part 2 - The Kuiper Belt

Discussion in 'Education & Personal Growth' started by kkrish, May 2, 2019.

  1. kkrish

    kkrish IL Hall of Fame

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    The Kuiper Belt

    Let’s continue to climb higher in our hovercraft. We can now see Saturn’s hexagonal North Pole and its beautiful ring system. Higher… there it is, Uranus, rolling on its orbital path; higher … and we see Neptune.

    Higher… oh stop ... what is it?! Another huge doughnut similar to the Asteroid Belt! .... starting at the edge of Neptune’s orbit, about 30 AU and extending to about 50-55 AU from the Sun. Overlapping this belt is a region called the
    Scattered Disk that extends to another 1000 AU. There are some heavenly bodies that are in orbit beyond the 1000 AU also. (more on the Scattered disk, later)

    This belt system is known as the Kuiper (pronounced Ky-per) Belt.

    nasa1.jpg
    Image courtesy: NASA

    In 1943, astronomer Kenneth Edgeworth put forth the idea that comets and other large objects exist beyond Neptune’s orbit.

    In 1951 Gerard Kuiper predicted that there is a ring beyond Neptune’s orbit that came into existence when the solar system formed. He suggested that this place is home to short period comets, and other icy bodies. Short period comets are comets that take 200 years to orbit the sun. In 1951 it was hard to see beyond Neptune even through the best telescopes of that time.

    In 1987 two scientists Dave Jewitt and Jane Luu took up Edgeworth’s and Kuiper’s ideas seriously, and began to scan the areas beyond Neptune for objects. Their perseverance and relentless pursuit paid off in 1992 when they discovered an object (Albion) beyond Neptune’s orbit and confirmed the presence of an area filled with other objects.

    In honor of Gerard Kuiper, this Belt is widely known as the Kuiper Belt and sometimes also referred to as the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt.

    Kuiper Belt is one of the largest structures in our Solar System.

    As more and more objects came to be discovered in the Kuiper Belt they began to be called Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO).

    There was one KBO that we had detected way back in 1930, but did not know that it was a KBO. We thought it was a planet and called it Pluto. (More about Pluto later)

    Slowly other interesting objects were discovered, namely Eris, Makemake, Haumea, and the latest, Ultima-Thule. These KBOs along with Pluto are also known as trans-Neptunian objects.

    Besides these dwarf planets there are millions of icy objects floating in the Kuiper Belt.

    While earlier it was thought that short period comets dwell in the Kuiper Belt, the latest information is that these comets reside in the scattered disk, the area overlapping and extending beyond the Kuiper Belt.

    Some dwarf planets within the Kuiper Belt have thin atmospheres that collapse when their orbit carries them farthest from the Sun.

    Several dwarf planets within the Kuiper Belt have moons.

    Just as Jupiter’s powerful gravity did not allow the objects in the Asteroid Belt to coalesce and form into a planet, similarly Neptune’s gravity might have prevented the current KBO’s from getting together and forming a planet.

    If we pay some attention on how the Kuiper Belt is arranged, it will appear as if Neptune is keeping the KBO’s from entering the planetary areas. Despite Neptune’s efforts, a few KBO’s seem to have entered the planetary area, some to be captured by a planet as its moon. Phoebe, one of Saturn’s moons, was a former KBO.

    Due to the enormous distance it is hard to determine the sizes of the KBOs. It is with the help of the Spitzer Space Telescope that some of the largest know KBOs sizes have been determined.

    About two thousand KBO’s have been documented until now and scientists believe there are more, probably thousands more, objects that are 100 km wider or larger.

    Astronomers also think that today the Kuiper Belt is home to far less objects than what were originally there. According to the Nice Model (Nice, France) the shifting orbits of the giant planets could have caused most of the Kuiper Belt material to be lost into space.

    Even as we read this, the Kuiper Belt is slowly losing many of its members. Some KBOs collide with each other forming smaller fragments. Some of these fragments may turn into comets while some may be blown out of the solar system by the solar winds.

    Let’s take a look at some of the KBOs. KBOs are also known as trans-Neptunian objects.

    Eris

    In 2005 scientists discovered a KBO that was slightly larger than Pluto. Eris’ orbit is farther away from Pluto’s orbit. Eris’ orbit ranges between 38-98AU while Pluto’s ranges between 29-49 AU. Eris is so far away it takes 557 – 580 years to orbit the sun.

    At first astronomers thought they would announce Eris as the Sun’s tenth planet. However, the IAU created a new class known as the “dwarf planet” and placed Eris, Pluto, and the asteroid Ceres in this category. Later, Makemake and Hanumea joined this “dwarf planet” family.

    Eris has a small moon named Dysnomia.

    Haumea

    Haumea is oblong (ellipsoid) in shape, and is about 1,931 km long. It was discovered in 2003 and was named as Haumea in 2008 after the Hawaiian Goddess of fertility.

    In 2017 they discovered a ring around Haumea.

    It had collided with an object half it size. This has made the dwarf-planet spinning end to end every four hours. Scientists believe that this fast spinning end-to-end has shaped the planet into an oblong shape.

    Haumea also has two moons named Hi’iaka and Namaka.

    Some KBOs


    universe today.jpg
    Picture courtesy: Universe today

    Ultima Thule

    The spacecraft New Horizons on January 1, 2019 was four billion miles from Earth flying by another KBO, now named Ultima Thule. This is currently the farthest object ever explored.

    The most striking was the strange shape, like that of a snowman (to me it looked like an infant). On further analysis of the images it was determined that this KBO is a contact binary, with a large flat lobe (Ultima) connected to a smaller rounder lobe (Thule)

    nasa2.jpg
    Picture courtesy: NASA

    Scientists believe that this shape was result of the two objects who were initially orbiting each other (binary system) eventually merging gently. They are hoping that more analysis into this will provide greater insight to the formation of planetisimals – the building blocks of planets.

    Ultima-Thule is well preserved, with craters, bright spots, patches, hills, valleys, and pits. There is an 8-km wide crater that is nicknamed Maryland crater. Scientists are yet to find out if this is an impact crater or if it was created by ice sublimation. Ice sublimation is the process where the ice goes from solid to gas directly, leaving a crater in its place.

    Scientists have seen evidence for the presence of methanol, water ice, and organic molecules on Ultima- Thule’s surface.

    Data is still pouring in from New Horizons spacecraft on Ultima-Thule and is opening up our knowledge to more and new information.
    ********************
    Information courtesy:NASA

    *****************************************************************

    Next.... our beloved Pluto
    pinterest.jpg
    Picture courtesy: Pinterest.com
     
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  2. Thyagarajan

    Thyagarajan IL Hall of Fame

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    :hello:Thanks for the excursion. Awesome. But then I wonder why God has Created all these in addition to earth with millions of species including humans. And where from he got resources to create these! Wonder of wonders.
    The read has taken me to have a closer and deeper look of the universe and God.
    God has purpose with all His creations.
     
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  3. kkrish

    kkrish IL Hall of Fame

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    Thank you @Thyagarajan sir for your first response.
    Yes, your questions are the ones that have baffled us for centuries and resulted in multiple hypotheses.
    Truly amazing and humbling.
     
  4. satchitananda

    satchitananda IL Hall of Fame

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    The more one tries to understand all the wonders of the universe, the greater is the realization of how little one knows and how insignificant one is in the larger scheme of things. And then every little thing, however insignificant is so beautiful! The yellow bird does not leave my mind! :p
     
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  5. kkrish

    kkrish IL Hall of Fame

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    Thank you for your comments @satchitananda .
    I can only nod in affirmation of your comments.
    All this has definitely helped look at life differently and humbly. I appreciate life more.
     
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  6. kkrish

    kkrish IL Hall of Fame

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