Wild solar system spotted around distant star Nov 11, 2009
The brightest parts of this dust cloud (yellow-white) likely come from the outer cold disk similar to our own Kuiper belt (beyond Neptune's orbit). The huge extended dust halo is seen as orange-red. (MSNBC -- Technology)
Spitzer Observes Chaotic Planetary System Nov 9, 2009
They say this dust must be coming from collisions among small bodies similar to the comets or icy bodies that make up today's Kuiper Belt objects in our solar system. The gravity of the three large planets is throwing the smaller bodies off course, causing them to migrate around and collide with each other. (Science Daily)
Five bizarre objects Sep 30, 2009
Named after the Hawaiian mother goddess, this dwarf planet from the Kuiper Belt is like an oblong potato - 2,000 km long but only about 1,000 km in width ... These two identical bodies circle each other in the Kuiper Belt. (India Times, India -- Health/Science)
New moons on the horizon Sep 30, 2009
Then there are 104 moons associated with asteroids and 58 with various objects beyond Neptune, mostly in the Kuiper Belt. Since 2000, 47 new moons of Jupiter and 43 of Saturn have been discovered. (India Times, India -- Health/Science)
An unfamiliar neighbourhood Sep 30, 2009
The combined might of powerful telescopes and super computers led to the discovery of one of the most bizarre regions in the solar system - the Kuiper Belt (pronounced kwiper), named after a Dutch astronomer ... In fact, it is now thought that Pluto might be just one of the Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) ... The Kuiper Belt is deathly cold, with an average temperature of about minus 225 degrees Celsius. (India Times, India -- Health/Science)
Spot makes strange dwarf planet even stranger Sep 16, 2009
Haumea, , orbits the sun beyond Neptune, in a region known as the Kuiper Belt. It is classified as a celestial body that is big enough to have been rounded by its own gravity, but which has not cleared its orbital region of similar objects. (MSNBC -- Technology)
The Great Beyond Sep 11, 2009
According to , future observations will range from "studying the population of Kuiper Belt objects at the fringe of our solar system to surveying the birth of planets around other stars and probing the composition and structure of extrasolar planet atmospheres.". Posted by Mark Peplow Categories. (Nature News Service)
Hubble unveilsitsnew vision Sep 10, 2009
Observations will range from studying the population of Kuiper Belt objects at the fringe of the solar system to surveying the birth of planets around other stars and probing the composition and structure of extrasolar planet atmospheres. There are also ambitious plans to take the deepest-ever near-infrared portrait of the universe, revealing infant galaxies that existed when the universe was less than 500 million years old. (MSNBC -- Technology)
Hubble Opens New Eyes On The Universe Sep 10, 2009
Looking closer to Earth, such observations will include taking a census of the population of Kuiper Belt objects residing at the fringe of our solar system, witnessing the birth of planets around other stars, and probing the composition and structure of the atmospheres of other worlds. Peering much farther away, astronomers have ambitious plans to use Hubble to make the deepest-ever portrait of the universe in near-infrared light. (Science Daily)
Solar systems warped by interstellar wind Sep 2, 2009
Although astronomers don't know whether planets lurk within the disks of these systems, a better understanding of processes affecting a disk's outer regions will shed light on how "ice giant" planets like Uranus and Neptune and the more distant swarm of small, icy bodies known as the Kuiper Belt formed within the solar system. 2009 Space. (MSNBC -- Technology)
Warped Debris Disks Around Stars Are 'Blowin' In The Wind' Aug 29, 2009
Although astronomers don't know whether planets lurk within the disks of these systems, a better understanding of processes affecting a disk's outer regions will shed light on how "ice giant" planets like Uranus and Neptune -- and the more distant swarm of small, icy bodies known as the Kuiper Belt -- formed within the solar system. Astronomers have sometimes attributed warps and bends in debris disks to the presence of undiscovered planets or to past encounters with another star. (Science Daily)
Neptune twenty years later Aug 28, 2009
It s believed to be a captured Kuiper Belt object, 2,720 kilometres across, that wandered too close to the ice giant at some point in the distant past. Voyager 2 flew within 40,000 kilometres, photographing a surface that was frozen but certainly not inactive. (Astronomy Now Online)
Pluto still not a planet after astronomy meeting Aug 14, 2009
07 as much as the rest of the objects in its orbit, which includes "Kuiper Belt" comets and Neptune, an ice giant planet ... "I believe that the IAU had no interest in revisiting the question of Pluto this year. The vocal disagreements that occurred at the General Assembly in 2006 embarrassed the organization. The decision made then, whether we like it or not, solved the IAUs practical problem, by specifying how objects in the Kuiper Belt will be classified, for purpose of assigning names to... (USA Today -- Tech)
Kent Bush: Ive got high hopes of becoming a planet Aug 1, 2009
Apparently life is a little more crowded in the Kuiper Belt. I am going to begin lobbying the IAU immediately in hopes that the new definition of a planet would include me. (Medfield Press, MA)
The Next Lunar Landing Jul 21, 2009
" There may be economic, scientific, or sentimental reasons attracting people to remote places; people always have a variety of reasons for moving from one place to another. One of the few constant factors in human history is migration, often over huge distances for reasons that are difficult to discern. I have little doubt that as soon as emigration from Earth becomes cheap enough for ordinary people to afford, people will emigrate. To make human space travel cheap, we will need advanced... (The Atlantic Online)
Research shows why some asteroid belts differ Jul 17, 2009
Researchers say the model also explains other oddities in the solar system: the far-out Kuiper belt beyond Neptune, the so-called of Jupiter, and the of the moon billions of years ago. "It really is the only model we have that can explain the solar system like we see [it]," said Harold Levison, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. (MSNBC -- Technology)
Fast Neutral Hydrogen Detected Coming From The Moon Jul 6, 2009
The combined scattering and neutralization processes now observed at the moon have implications for interactions with objects across the solar system, such as asteroids, Kuiper Belt objects and other moons. The plasma-surface interactions occurring within protostellar nebula, the region of space that forms around planets and stars -- as well as exoplanets, planets around other stars -- also can be inferred. (Science Daily)
A "Briny Deep" Inside Enceladus? Jun 25, 2009
Mercury may have its volcanic plains, Mars its buried glaciers, and the Kuiper Belt its dwarf planets but arguably there's no more exciting place in the solar system right now than the Saturnian moon Enceladus. It's drawn the attention of planetary dynamicists, geophysicists, volcanologists, glaciologists, oceanographers, astrobiologists, and plasma physicists not bad for a modest moon that's barely 300 miles (490 km) across. (SkyAndTelescope.com)
Binary stars host potential planetary disk Jun 17, 2009
The region is analogous to the zone in that encompasses the gas giant planets and the Kuiper belt objects. "We believe that V4046 Sagittarii provides one of the clearest examples yet discovered of a Keplerian, planet-forming disk orbiting a young star system," said team member David Wilner of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. (MSNBC -- Technology)
Venetia Phair, at 90; as child, gave planet Pluto its name May 9, 2009
"The International Astronomical Union downgraded Pluto in 2006 to a dwarf planet, based on the observation that Pluto was a large chunk in the Kuiper Belt of solar debris.Mrs. Phair said she was indifferent about Pluto's change of status, "though I suppose I would prefer it to remain a planet. "An asteroid discovered in 1987 was named in her honor: 6235 Burney.She studied mathematics at Cambridge University and taught economics and math until retiring in the 1980s. ? Copyright 2009 Globe... (Boston Globe)
Venetia Phair, who named planet Pluto, dies at 90 May 7, 2009
The International Astronomical Union downgraded Pluto in 2006 to a dwarf planet - based on the observation that Pluto was a large chunk in the Kuiper Belt of solar debris. Phair said she was indifferent about Pluto's change of status, "though I suppose I would prefer it to remain a planet.". (Fresno Bee -- Local)
A poignant tale of Pluto's demotion brouhaha Apr 7, 2009
Therefore, the committee decided, they should treat it as just another ice-and-rock ball that resides 4 billion miles away in a region called the Kuiper Belt. After the center opened in February 2000, The New York Times called this grievous omission to public attention in an article headlined "Pluto's Not a Planet? Only in New York." As a result, Neil deGrasse Tyson who headed the committee was branded, in his words, a "thoughtless, heartless Pluto hater.". (San Francisco Chronicle -- Entertainment)
Sculpting the Asteroid Belt Mar 16, 2009
Here's how it works: Every time Jupiter heaves a small body out to the Kuiper Belt or beyond, the planet itself shifts infinitesimally closer to the Sun ... I read an article stating that the Kuiper belts of other stars are sometimes flat discs and sometimes have a large percentage of strongly inclined orbits ... This led me to wonder if maybe the hyposthesised "Nemesis: Death Star" might have been a smaller object perturbing the nearer Kuiper belt rather than a larger object perturbing the... (SkyAndTelescope.com)
The Lost Siblings of the Sun Mar 13, 2009
Evidence for the cluster's mass and size, Zwart writes, is preserved in the anomalous chemical abundances and structure of the Kuiper Belt the small, icy objects in the outer solar system beyond Neptune. Some of the Kuiper Belt's objects are still dynamically "hot"; they were stirred up and scattered by the gravity of at least one nearby cluster star making a close pass in early days. (SkyAndTelescope.com)
> read more Mar 11, 2009
Evidence for the cluster's mass and size, Zwart writes, is preserved in the anomalous chemical abundances and structure of the Kuiper Belt the small, icy objects in the outer solar system beyond Neptune. Some of the Kuiper Belt's objects are known as the dynamically "hot" fraction of the belt, because they were stirred up and scattered by the gravity of at least one nearby cluster star making a close pass in early days. (SkyAndTelescope.com)
Missing asteroids reveal planet-sized mystery Feb 27, 2009
But their gravitational interactions with the then-larger Kuiper Belt, an icy region beyond Neptune filled with , ended up fueling a migration. "Each time the planets tossed these Kuiper Belt objects around, they would move a little," Minton told SPACE.com. (MSNBC -- Technology)
A Plan for the Planets Feb 21, 2009
Pluto, he noted, is there, "in the Kuiper belt, and after that comes the Oort cloud-maybe up to a trillion comets gravitationally connected to our sun." According to Mr. Lambert, there are only "about 30 to 40 such installations in the world. He saw one of them in Ithaca, N.Y., "when [noted astronomer] Carl Sagan was there [on the faculty of Cornell University ... Jean-AnnPaddyfote] is supportive as well," said Mr. Lambert, who offered a unique outlook on how the project might monumentally... (New Milford Times, CT)
Pluto’s descent from list of planets into controversy - Scientist retraces tiny celestial body’s history Feb 17, 2009
Then, beginning in the 1990s, with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope and more powerful terrestrial telescopes, came a devastating blow to Pluto - the discovery of similar bodies well beyond Neptune, called Kuiper Belt Objects. Not quite comets nor asteroids, not quite planets, the KBOs appeared to be a new entity unto themselves, and it started becoming apparent to more astronomers that perhaps Pluto belonged to this brood rather than to the family of planets. (Missoulian, MT)
Long-Distance Snapshot Feb 8, 2009
And the dust ring around it, he told reporters, is probably much like the Kuiper Belt of colliding icy objects that fills our own heavens in the region just beyond Neptune. Kalas said he photographed Fomalhaut's planet and its dust belt with the Hubble telescope in 2004 and again in 2006, and found that its varying positions around the star exactly fit a 900-year-long orbit for a planet flying about 11 billion miles out from its parent star. (San Francisco Chronicle -- Science)
