Asteroid BeltKuiper BeltOort cloud

Asteroid BeltAsteroid Belt

• Discovered in 1801.

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

Asteroid BeltAsteroid Belt

• The region of space between Mars and Jupiter; about 2.8AU

• Hundreds of thousands of asteroids known. Probably millions.

Asteroid BeltAsteroid Belt

• 3 types of asteroid: Carbonaceous, Silicate, Metallic

• Even the largest object in the belt, Ceres, is too dim to see without aid

Asteroid BeltAsteroid Belt

• Remnants of a planet-formation process that failed

Kuiper BeltKuiper Belt

• Discovered in 1992

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

Kuiper BeltKuiper Belt

• Region beyond Neptune; 30 to over 50AU

• At least 70 000 small, icy, slow-moving, objects

Kuiper BeltKuiper 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 BeltKuiper Belt

• History of solar system

Oort CloudOort Cloud

• Hypothetical spherical cloud. No direct observations.

• Proposed by Ernst Opik (1932), Jan Henrik Oort (1950)

Oort CloudOort Cloud

• 50 000AU; defines gravitational boundary of solar system

• Source of long-period Comets

Oort CloudOort Cloud

• Objects composed of ices (water, methane, and ammonia)

• 2 regions: outer sphere, inner disc

Oort CloudOort 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/Ku

iperBelt.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