The Kuiper Belt is a ring of rocky objects floating alongside our Solar System beyond Neptune. It extends outwards from Neptune’s orbit thousands of AU (astronomical units).
Detailed Definition:
The Kuiper Belt is similar to the asteroid belt (the one between Mars and Jupiter), but it is far larger. It consists of small rocky creatures, among which are so called dwarf planets: Pluto, Haumea, Makemake etc.
It is believed that many bodies found nowadays inside of it are as old as our Solar System.
It was being discovered little by little during the twentieth century. Firstly, there was just an idea given by Gerard Kuiper, that Pluto cannot be alone in the outer Solar System. After many precise calculations and continuous observation of the sky, in 1992, two scientists, Dave Jewitt and Jane Luu, found a second Kuiper Belt Object (KBO), confirming the theory.
Etymology:
Kuiper (/ˈkaɪpər/) - from Dutch, meaning copper,
Belt (/bɛlt/) - Old English, of Germanic origin, from Latin balteus ‘girdle’.
Sample Sentence(s):
One of the largest objects of the Kuiper Belt, Pluto, a dwarf planet, is the tenth-most-massive object to directly orbit the Sun.
