The Kuiper Belt is a donut-shaped region that extends to about 50 Astronomical Unit (AU) (1 AU=92.96 million miles, means distance of Earth from the Sun.) Kuiper Belt is thought to be the source for short-period comnets such as Comet Halley or Comet Swift-Tuttle. It is filled with icy bodies that are in solar orbit. 800 objects found in this region are called Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs). On the other hand, it is estimated that there are more than 70,000 objects of more than 60 miles in diameter in the Kuiper Belt. Dwarf planets like Pluto and UB 313 are considered as Kuiper Belt objects.
No comments:
Post a Comment