Asteroid Belt Kuiper Belt Oort cloud

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Asteroid BeltKuiper BeltOort cloud
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Asteroid Belt

• Discovered in 1801.
• Piazza found Ceres. Olbers found Pallas.
  Previously predicted by Franz Xaver VonZach.

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Asteroid Belt

• The region of space between Mars and Jupiter
  about 2.8AU
• Hundreds of thousands of asteroids known.
  Probably millions.

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Asteroid Belt

• 3 types of asteroid Carbonaceous, Silicate,
  Metallic
• Even the largest object in the belt, Ceres, is
  too dim to see without aid

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Asteroid Belt

• Remnants of a planet-formation process that failed

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Kuiper Belt

• Discovered in 1992
• Named for Dutch Astronomer Gerard Kuiper, who had
  PREDICTED its existence in 1951.

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Kuiper Belt

• Region beyond Neptune 30 to over 50AU
• At least 70 000 small, icy, slow-moving, objects

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Kuiper Belt

• Very faint objects because small, far and reflect
  light from Sun
• A million times fainter than faintest we can see
  with naked-eye

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Kuiper Belt

• History of solar system

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Oort Cloud

• Hypothetical spherical cloud. No direct
  observations.
• Proposed by Ernst Opik (1932), Jan Henrik Oort
  (1950)

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Oort Cloud

• 50 000AU defines gravitational boundary of solar
  system
• Source of long-period Comets

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Oort Cloud

• Objects composed of ices (water, methane, and
  ammonia)
• 2 regions outer sphere, inner disc

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Oort Cloud

• Comets can not have formed on their current orbit
• Must be held in an outer reservoir

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Sources

• http//www.lpl.arizona.edu/faculty/malhotra_prepri
  nts/ISP_Nov04/KuiperBelt.jpg
• http//www.cnes.fr/automne_modules_files/standard/
  public/p1135_ed77069b38b89947b9f6e5678e9af2adkuipe
  r_pluton.jpg
• http//discovermagazine.com/2004/nov/cover/outer-o
  ort.jpg
• http//www.myastrologybook.com/OortCloud10q8x7.jpg
  
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oort_cloud
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_(dwarf_planet)
• http//www.astro.ubc.ca/lallen/kbo/general.html
• http//www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronom
  y/solarsystem/kuiper.shtml
• Universe The Definitive Visual Guide