Short Definition: The Kuiper belt (called Edgeworth-Kuiper belt) is a region in space
located in the outer Solar System placed between 30 to 50-55 AU (astronomical
units) from the Sun. It is a doughnut-shaped ring composed of gas, dust or
asteroids.
Detailed Definition: The first hypotheses about the Kuiper belt appeared in 1930, but it took
over 50 years to confirm that hypotheses. Since then scientists discovered over
100000 KBOs (Kuiper belt object) with the diameter larger than 100 km. With
that distance from the Sun, objects are mostly composed of leftovers from the
solar system's early history which means icy bodies (frozen chemical elements
and compounds). The largest KBOs are: Pluto (composed in 98 percent from
nitrogen ice) and Eris (mostly built from methane). As the Kuiper Belt is
icy-cold place it is thought to be the source of the comets in the solar
system. The fascinating thing is that not only planets and dwarf planets might
have moons but also lots on Kuiper Belt objects have ones.
Etymology:
Kuiper – Dutch
– Kuiper - cooper – from the name of the scientist Gerard Kuiper Belt – Latin - balteus - girdle
Sample Sentence(s): “The amount of material in the Kuiper Belt today might be just a small
fraction of what was originally there.”
