The Kuiper Belt is located beyond the orbit of Neptune, and is a wide band of icy rocks in the shape of a ring. And here is Pluto, Arrokoth, and countless other small bodies floating in space.
Scientists recently discovered another belt of these objects at a distance of 70 to 90 astronomical units (the astronomical unit is the distance between the Sun and the Earth) from the Sun, and it is separated from the main “Kuiper” belt by an empty gap. It appears that there are two Kuiper Belts, or at least two parts of it, which is a surprising discovery made by the staff of the National Astronomical Observatory in Japan. The results of the study in this regard were published in Planetary Science Journal.
Planetary scientist Fumi Yoshida from the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan said: “If this is confirmed, it will be a major discovery, which may affect the study of planetary formation in our solar system.”
It is usually believed that the objects in the Kuiper Belt are the most stable celestial bodies in the solar system. The belt itself extends from the orbit of Neptune at a distance of 30-50 astronomical units from the Sun. This means that objects within the belt are exposed to minimal solar radiation, and it has remained almost unchanged since the birth of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. These objects are ancient remnants of the primordial disk from which all planets were formed.
Kuiper belt observations using the Subaru telescope in Hawaii identified 263 new objects in the Kuiper belt. An international team of astronomers found that 11 of these objects are much farther than what was thought to be the outer limit of the Kuiper Belt, that is, they are located at a distance of more than 70 astronomical units. The researchers were able to process this data and determine the density of the outer ring of the Kuiper Belt. It turned out to be lower than the inner level, but high enough to form a new belt.
However, practically nothing has been discovered in the region between 55 and 70 AU. This may seem strange, but such a gap is often discovered in other planetary systems.
“The Kuiper Belt has long appeared very small compared to what we have seen in other planetary systems, but the results of our study suggest that this perception may have arisen due to inaccurate observations,” explained the study’s first author, Leslie Fraser.
Source: Vk.com
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