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Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud. By: Rebecca Jackman & Amy Dayasundara. Basic Data on the Kuiper Belt. Past the orbit of Neptune. 30 to 400 AU from the sun. Small bodies of remnants from the early solar system. Consists of dwarf planets – Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Quaoar and Makemake.
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Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud By: Rebecca Jackman & Amy Dayasundara
Basic Data on the Kuiper Belt. • Past the orbit of Neptune. • 30 to 400 AU from the sun. • Small bodies of remnants from the early solar system. • Consists of dwarf planets – Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Quaoar and Makemake. • Eris is found beyond the Kuiper Belt in a region known as the Scatter disk.
History of the Kuiper Belt There have been theories of the Kuiper Belt since the early 1900’s In 1951, Gerard Kuiper said that some kinds of comets might come from the Kuiper Belt
Theories on the formation of the Kuiper Belt. • Gerard Kuiper has hypothesized since Pluto at the time was assumed to be the size of Earth there were probably scatters of bodies similar or smaller to this size scatter outwards.
Moons of the Kuiper Belt Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO) Pluto – Charon, Nix, Hydra Object: 1998 WW31 - S/2000 (1998 WW31) 1 Object: 2001 QT297 - S/2001 (88611) 1 Object: 2001 QW322 - S/2001 (2001 QW322) 1 Object: 1999 TC36 - S/2001 (47171) 1 Object: 1998 SM165 - S/2001 (26308) 1 Object: Logos (formerly 1997 CQ29) -Zoe (formerly S/2001 (1997 CQ29) 1) Object: 2000 CF105 - S/2002 (2000 CF105) 1 Object: 2001 QC298 - S/2002 (2001 QC298) 1 Object: 2003 EL61 - S/2005 (2003 EL61) 1
In details to the Kuiper Belt’s composition. • Composition of comets. • Mixture of light hydrocarbons. • Methane. • Water. • Ethane. • Carbon monoxide. • Hydrogen cyanide.
Exploration of the Kuiper Belt No missions or exploration of the Kuiper Just observation of passing KBO 2006 NASA launched an ambassador to Pluto –expected to land in 2015
Mysteries of the Kuiper Belt. • “Well, this week [11 December 2010], NASA announced that they have determined that a large, black object, bigger than Jupiter, located in the Kuiper Belt, is causing smaller objects from there to be hurled at the Earth.” • Fact or fictitious?
Interesting Facts…Kuiper Belt home to several dwarf planets such as Pluto, Haumea and MakeMake 40-50 AU from the sun largest known object is Orcus, about 1600 km (1,000 miles) across over 800 Kuiper belt objects had been found
Basic Data on the Oort Cloud. • Composed of gravitationally pulled comets which surround the whole solar system • Cloud extends out from a heliocentric distance of about 20,000 to 100,000 astronomical units • Peak density of the Oort Cloud at 44,000 AU. • Four Kelvin, or, -277 Degree’s Celsius. • The Oort Cloud was based off the data of Infrared scans of the outer space.
Moons of the Oort Cloud Objects in the Oort Cloud do not have moons It’s made up of millions of comets
History of the Oort Cloud In ancient times astronomers such as Aristotle, looked in the sky and saw comets and wondered where they came from In 1950 Jan Oort, proposed that comets come from a extremely distant body surrounding the solar system The swarm of objects is named the Oort Cloud.
Theories on the formation of the Oort Cloud. • First postulation made by Ernst Öpik. • Revived by Dutch astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort. • Comets either clash into the sun or other planets. In contrast to this, it was theorized that through perturbations, some of the comets were violently following a trajectory path beyond the solar system.
In details to the Oort Cloud composition. • Extension of Kuiper Belt. • Various ices: • Methane • Water • Ethane • Carbon monoxide • Hydrogen cyanide • These are predecessors of comet compositions.
Exploration of the Oort Cloud No actual exploration or mission has taken place Just observations and collection of data from passing comets.
Mysteries of the Oort Cloud. • Could there be planets within the Oort cloud that we do not know of?
Interesting Facts…Oort Cloud 30 trillion kilometres from the Sun Roughly five times the mass of the Earth Other name Hills cloud first proposed in 1980 outer Oort cloud is believed to contain several trillion individual comet nuclei not much larger than 1.3 km
Test questions.Matching A. Gerard Kuiper B. Over 800 C. Jan Oort D. Roughly 5 times E. Comets • 1. Who discovered the Oort Cloud? • C. Jan Oort • 2. Who discovered the Kuiper Belt? • A. Gerard Kuiper • 3. How many times heavier is the Oort Cloud then Earth? • D. Roughly 5 times • 4. How many objects have been found in the Kuiper Belt? • B. Over 800 • 5. What objects are generally found in the Kupier Belt and Oort cloud? • E. Comets
Kuiper Belt is past the orbit of: Venus Neptune Mars Pluto The peak density of the Oort Cloud is: 44, 000 AU 45, 000 AU 46, 000 AU 47, 000 AU The first hypothesis of the Oort cloud was made by: Ernst Opik Jan Hendrik Oort Gerard Kuiper Clyde Tombaugh The composition of a comet from the Kuiper belt is: Ethane. Carbon monoxide. Hydrogen cyanide All of the above How many Kelvin is the Oort cloud? 4 Kelvin 24 Kelvin -4 Kelvin 14 Kelvin Multiple Choice
True and False • There are no moons in the Kuiper Belt. • False, there are more than one. • In 1951, Gerard Kuiper said that some kinds of meteor might come from the Kuiper Belt • False, comets. Meteors are smaller than comets and generally rock. They could be rather small. • The outer region Oort cloud is believed to contain several trillion individual comet nuclei not much larger than 1.3 km. • True. • Composed of floating comets which surround the whole solar system • False, gravitationally pulled comets by the suns gravitation field strength. • Haumea is found beyond the Kuiper Belt in a region known as the Scatter disk. • False, eris is found beyond the Kuiper Belt.
Short Answers • What is the Kuiper Belt? • What is the Oort cloud and how is it related to the Kuiper Belt? • What was Gerald Kuiper’s hypothesis for the Kuiper belt? • Why is it not possible to travel to the Oort cloud and how was the data collected then? • In your own personal judgment, do you think that comets could clash together to eventually become a planetessimal and possibly another planet?
Bibliography • Oort cloud. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/O/OortCloud.html • Hamilton, C. (2010). Views of the solar system. Retrieved from http://www.solarviews.com/ • Astronomy and space for kids. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.kidsastronomy.com/academy/lesson110_assignment1_6.htm • The solar system: the sun, planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, comets and meteors and solar system formations. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.windows2universe.org/our_solar_system/solar_system.html&edu=high • Marvin, D. (2011). Solar system exploration: planets: kuiper belt & oort cloud. Retrieved from http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=KBOs&Display=OverviewLong • Adachi, T. (2002). Oort's cloud web. Retrieved from http://astromoko.info/Oort.html • Boone, K. (2010, Oct 19). Nasa-new horizons: mission to pluto and the. Retrieved from http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html • Garza, G. (2009, Oct 24). Facts about the oort cloud - home of the comets. Retrieved from http://www.brighthub.com/science/space/articles/53391.aspx