Asteroid Belt

Kuiper Belt
Oort cloud
 Asteroid Belt
• Discovered in 1801.
• Piazza found Ceres. Olbers found
Pallas. Previously predicted by Franz
Xaver VonZach.
 Asteroid Belt
• The region of space between Mars and
Jupiter; about 2.8AU
• Hundreds of thousands of asteroids
known. Probably millions.
 Asteroid Belt
• 3 types of asteroid: Carbonaceous,
Silicate, Metallic
• Even the largest object in the belt,
Ceres, is too dim to see without aid
 Asteroid Belt
• Remnants of a planet-formation
process that failed
 Kuiper Belt
• Discovered in 1992
• Named for Dutch Astronomer Gerard
Kuiper, who had PREDICTED its
existence in 1951.
 Kuiper Belt
• Region beyond Neptune; 30 to over
50AU
• At least 70 000 small, icy, slow-moving,
objects
 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
 Kuiper Belt
• History of solar system
 Oort Cloud
• Hypothetical spherical cloud. No direct
observations.
• Proposed by Ernst Opik (1932), Jan
Henrik Oort (1950)
 Oort Cloud
• 50 000AU; defines gravitational
boundary of solar system
• Source of long-period Comets
 Oort Cloud
• Objects composed of ices (water,
methane, and ammonia)
• 2 regions: outer sphere, inner disc
 Oort Cloud
• Comets can not have formed on their
current orbit
• Must be held in an outer reservoir
 Sources
• http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/faculty/malhotra_preprints/ISP_Nov04/Kui
perBelt.jpg
• http://www.cnes.fr/automne_modules_files/standard/public/p1135_e
d77069b38b89947b9f6e5678e9af2adkuiper_pluton.jpg
• http://discovermagazine.com/2004/nov/cover/outer-oort.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/astronomy/solarsystem/
kuiper.shtml
• Universe: The Definitive Visual Guide