Kuiper Belt Research Paper

This activity is about the main events in New Horizon’s journey to Pluto and beyond.

In this paper I will explain how astronomers determine the composition, temperature, speed, and rotation rate of distant objects using various methods. I will explain the properties of stars. I will also summarize the complete lifecycle of the Sun and determine where the Sun is currently in its lifecycle.

In the outer limits of our solar system there is a planet unlike any other, Pluto. Pluto was discovered in February of 1930 by an American astronomer, Clyde Tombaugh. It is the only planet to have been discovered by an American. All though we have known of the existence of Pluto for over thirty years now, there are still many mysteries surrounding this celestial body. Being the farthest planet has made it difficult to study Pluto, Adding to the obscurity of this strange planet is that the capability to send spacecraft such distances has never been achieved. Through the wonders of science and astronomy, there are many things that can be determined, concluded, and hypothesized about this obscure planet.

This places the new planet more or less in the Kuiper Belt, a dark realm beyond Neptune where

New Horizons is expected to get closer to Pluto and grab detailed images that should be able to detect differences in the planet’s surface of a few miles apart. Right now, it’s still some 70 million miles away. The spacecraft was launched on January 19, 2006 with an Earth and solar escape trajectory going 36,000 miles an hour. It’s the fastest object to ever leave our atmosphere. Along the way to Pluto, New Horizons also got a gravity assist from Jupiter. In effect, a spacecraft will slingshot around a planet to increase its speed.

The New Horizons is helping us understand worlds at the edge of our solar system by making the first reconnaissance (View) of the dwarf planet pluto. By venturing off deeper and deeper

Barucci, M. A., Boehnhardt, H., Cruikshank, D. P., Morbidelli, A. and Renee Dotson: 2008, The Solar System Beyond Neptune, University of Arizona Press.

Are you familiar with the latest news that Pluto is no longer a planet; that it now has dwarf planetary status and essentially a celestial body of ice? How about the New Horizons mission to Pluto to discover more about its surroundings and environment? Perhaps you heard about these through social media, such as a shared post from a friend on Facebook, or alternatively through scientific journals and articles. Pluto’s planetary status was decided by the International Astronomical Union (further referred to as IAU) that met in Prague in 2006. They came up with a list of criteria that a celestial body needed to meet in order to be considered a planet. The first criterion is that it has to be orbiting around the Sun; the second, it has to be heavy enough for its gravity to overcome external forces so that it has a round shape, and lastly, it has to have gravitational dominance in order to clear its neighborhood of other celestial bodies in its orbit. Pluto fails to accomplish the last criterion of clearing its neighborhood because Pluto shares an environment that consists of numerous celestial bodies which make up Kuiper’s Belt.

NASA continues to explore beyond Pluto with interesting space findings. The New Horizon NASA project may have stumbled upon a new icy rock that looks like a UFO. Far from Pluto, New Horizon has had some success. Now they continue deeper and further into space as they collect more data. But what is NASA looking for? And why is the Kuiper Belt so interesting? Pooling resources for Mars or moon colonization doesn’t appear to be in mind for NASA. The distant icy rock that looks like a UFO may have some deeper significance. And the public may never know the truth.

Findings revealed that the system is located 39 light years from the solar system and is in the constellation of Aquarius. The system is formed of at least seven planets that orbit around a star that according to trappist.one is 12 times less massive than the Sun (“About Trappist-1 p.1”). Following findings made by the TRAPPIST, Spitzer space telescope, the Very Large Telescope, UKIRT, the Liverpool Telescope, and the William Herschel Telescope revealed new planets in the system and more facts about the composition of the planets. The discoveries made about the planets in the Trappist-1 system show surprising and promising aspects that might be promising evidence for a habitable

Scientist and astronomers over centuries have been able to greater understand the universe due to the increase in new technology. Space technology has enabled us to put numerous theories to the test. There are several types of space technologies such as satellites, space probes and telescopes that have allowed us to analyze planets and distant galaxies. With the information gathered we can help put together how and when the universe came about.

New Horizons still has many years of fuel and power. It will continue its more-than-10-year mission, exploring the primordial material of the Kuiper Belt. When asked by a young person what the mission will do now that the big event of the Pluto flyby has happened, five-time space shuttle astronaut Grunsfeld said the interplanetary spacecraft will—in a nod to Star Trek—“go where no New Horizons spacecraft has gone before.”

Kuiper Belt objects are difficult to study due to the lack of technology to explore these distant worlds. Like the 8 planets, these KBOs orbit the sun; many of them share the same orbital resonance as Neptune. Essentially, they orbit the “Sun twice every three Neptune years;” however, there are some KBOs that fall into the 1:2 resonance, almost all the others fall into this range. Along with their variety in orbits, these KBOs possess a huge variety in their color scheme. The Kuiper Belt has two distinct, overlapping populations; these are classified as “hot” and “cold,” and each population has a different set of colors than the other. The objects in the Kuiper Belt possess a range in traits such as their density, reflectivity, and colors;

Today I will discuss and describe another place in the solar system a phenomenon like the Kirkwood gaps in the asteroid belt is likely to exist. I will first start off by explaining what the Kirkwood gaps are, to give you an example of a solar system phenomenon is like.

Uncovering the mysteries of Jupiter is a crucial step for a greater understanding of our Solar System. Being the massive planet that it is, this mysterious planet may hold many answers to how our the Solar System formed and evolved. The understanding of the origins of the universe includes answers even to the formation of Earth itself. Many believe that the research of Jupiter will lead to discoveries on planet formation and the role of giant planets on the formation f stars and other smaller bodies. Mysteries of Jupiter include its composition, what is under its clouds, what is in its core and its magnetic field. Research on the amount of water in the planet will tell us about the