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The Kuiper Belt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2016

Jane Luu
Jane Luu*
Affiliation:
Physics Department, Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305, USA

Abstract

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The existence of a belt of comets in the outer solar system (the “Kuiper belt”) has been postulated for a variety of reasons, including the need for a source for the short-period comets. The existence of the belt seems supported by the discoveries of the trans-Neptunian objects 1992 QB1, 1993 FW, 1993 RO, 1993 RP, 1993 SB, and 1993 SC. If these objects are members of the Kuiper belt, crude lower limits on the belt population can be established from the discoveries. The Kuiper belt comets are likely to be primordial remnants of the disk from which the solar system accreted. According to the current theories of cometary nucleus evolution, these objects are expected to possess mantles (“irradiation mantles”) which are different from mantles of comets which have been heated to the point of sublimation (“rubble mantles”). Kuiper belt comets on their way to short-period comet orbits may exist among the Centaur objects.

Type
Search Programs
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 160: Asteroids, Comets, Meteors 1993 , 1994 , pp. 31 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1994 

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