Kuiper Belt much bigger than previously thought?

[Kyng]

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/new-horizo...iper-belt/

New observations from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft hint that the Kuiper Belt – the vast, distant outer zone of our solar system populated by hundreds of thousands of icy, rocky planetary building blocks – might stretch much farther out than we thought.

Speeding through the outer edges of the Kuiper Belt, almost 60 times farther from the Sun than Earth, the New Horizons Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter (SDC) instrument is detecting higher than expected levels of dust – the tiny frozen remnants of collisions between larger Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) and particles kicked up from KBOs being peppered by microscopic dust impactors from outside of the solar system.

The readings defy scientific models that the KBO population and density of dust should start to decline a billion miles inside that distance and contribute to a growing body of evidence that suggests the outer edge of the main Kuiper Belt could extend billions of miles farther than current estimates – or that there could even be a second belt beyond the one we already know.

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In a way, this doesn't surprise me: the Kuiper Belt itself was only discovered in 1992, so it makes sense that we still wouldn't understand it very well .

But, if it is indeed bigger than it was previously thought (or indeed, there's a second belt beyond it), I wonder what weird and wonderful dwarf planets (or even full-sized planets) might lurk there?

[ZandraJoi]

I wouldn't be surprised that it continued to grow as well. New things added to it & caught in the field.

[Kyng]

I wouldn't be surprised that it continued to grow as well. New things added to it & caught in the field.

Yeah, quite possibly.

There are objects beyond the Kuiper Belt (for example, in the Oort Cloud, or outside the Solar System altogether) that sometimes make closer approaches - and it wouldn't surprise me if some of those occasionally got captured and stuck in the Kuiper Belt .

[SpookyZalost]

So here's my theory.  I think there is a second belt.  and between the two we'll find Planet 9 which is tugging on the inner Kuiper belt objects.  Planet nine keeps the two apart and the outer belt likely is stuff brought in from the Ort Cloud.

[Kyng]

So here's my theory.  I think there is a second belt.  and between the two we'll find Planet 9 which is tugging on the inner Kuiper belt objects.  Planet nine keeps the two apart and the outer belt likely is stuff brought in from the Ort Cloud.

That's entirely possible. Indeed, just a few months ago, some evidence of this second belt was announced:

https://www.livescience.com/space/astron...knew-about

Still, the Kuiper Belt stops at around 50 AU, and Planet Nine is theorised to be nearly ten times further out (at almost 500 AU) - so, this second belt would have the be pretty far out!

[SpookyZalost]

So here's my theory.  I think there is a second belt.  and between the two we'll find Planet 9 which is tugging on the inner Kuiper belt objects.  Planet nine keeps the two apart and the outer belt likely is stuff brought in from the Ort Cloud.

That's entirely possible. Indeed, just a few months ago, some evidence of this second belt was announced:

https://www.livescience.com/space/astron...knew-about

Still, the Kuiper Belt stops at around 50 AU, and Planet Nine is theorised to be nearly ten times further out (at almost 500 AU) - so, this second belt would have the be pretty far out!

Yeah, now.  but things change.  Planet nine could be a captured rogue exoplanet.  or one that got kicked during the solar system's forming.  still.  I'd love to see what they call the third belt if they find it.  Perhaps the Chione or Boreas Belt?  given it's situated the darkest, and most remote parts of the solar system?  Hell call planet nine Boreas and the belt the Chione belt.

[Kyng]

So here's my theory.  I think there is a second belt.  and between the two we'll find Planet 9 which is tugging on the inner Kuiper belt objects.  Planet nine keeps the two apart and the outer belt likely is stuff brought in from the Ort Cloud.

That's entirely possible. Indeed, just a few months ago, some evidence of this second belt was announced:

https://www.livescience.com/space/astron...knew-about

Still, the Kuiper Belt stops at around 50 AU, and Planet Nine is theorised to be nearly ten times further out (at almost 500 AU) - so, this second belt would have the be pretty far out!

Yeah, now.  but things change.  Planet nine could be a captured rogue exoplanet.  or one that got kicked during the solar system's forming.  still.  I'd love to see what they call the third belt if they find it.  Perhaps the Chione or Boreas Belt?  given it's situated the darkest, and most remote parts of the solar system?  Hell call planet nine Boreas and the belt the Chione belt.

Yeah, I'd certainly be up for either of those names .

And if Planet Nine does indeed exist, I'd be intrigued about its origins. Before the 'Planet Nine' talk even began, computer simulations suggested a giant planet could have been ejected from the Solar System... but, maybe it never left after all?

[SpookyZalost]

That's entirely possible. Indeed, just a few months ago, some evidence of this second belt was announced:

https://www.livescience.com/space/astron...knew-about

Still, the Kuiper Belt stops at around 50 AU, and Planet Nine is theorised to be nearly ten times further out (at almost 500 AU) - so, this second belt would have the be pretty far out!

Yeah, now.  but things change.  Planet nine could be a captured rogue exoplanet.  or one that got kicked during the solar system's forming.  still.  I'd love to see what they call the third belt if they find it.  Perhaps the Chione or Boreas Belt?  given it's situated the darkest, and most remote parts of the solar system?  Hell call planet nine Boreas and the belt the Chione belt.

Yeah, I'd certainly be up for either of those names .

And if Planet Nine does indeed exist, I'd be intrigued about its origins. Before the 'Planet Nine' talk even began, computer simulations suggested a giant planet could have been ejected from the Solar System... but, maybe it never left after all?

Except that Planet nine is theorized to be a super earth rather than a Jovian class planet.  but who knows.  could have been one of those larger planetoids that was supposed to form into a gas giant and got kicked early.

[Kyng]

Yeah, now.  but things change.  Planet nine could be a captured rogue exoplanet.  or one that got kicked during the solar system's forming.  still.  I'd love to see what they call the third belt if they find it.  Perhaps the Chione or Boreas Belt?  given it's situated the darkest, and most remote parts of the solar system?  Hell call planet nine Boreas and the belt the Chione belt.

Yeah, I'd certainly be up for either of those names .

And if Planet Nine does indeed exist, I'd be intrigued about its origins. Before the 'Planet Nine' talk even began, computer simulations suggested a giant planet could have been ejected from the Solar System... but, maybe it never left after all?

Except that Planet nine is theorized to be a super earth rather than a Jovian class planet.  but who knows.  could have been one of those larger planetoids that was supposed to form into a gas giant and got kicked early.

Ah, thanks for clarifying that - for some reason, I had it in my head that Planet Nine was theorised to be another gas/ice giant!

But, if it is indeed a super-Earth, then I guess that's part of why it's proven harder to find than I was expecting .

[SpookyZalost]

Yeah, I'd certainly be up for either of those names .

And if Planet Nine does indeed exist, I'd be intrigued about its origins. Before the 'Planet Nine' talk even began, computer simulations suggested a giant planet could have been ejected from the Solar System... but, maybe it never left after all?

Except that Planet nine is theorized to be a super earth rather than a Jovian class planet.  but who knows.  could have been one of those larger planetoids that was supposed to form into a gas giant and got kicked early.

Ah, thanks for clarifying that - for some reason, I had it in my head that Planet Nine was theorised to be another gas/ice giant!

But, if it is indeed a super-Earth, then I guess that's part of why it's proven harder to find than I was expecting .

They lowered their mass estimates a little while back to just 10 earth masses which puts it almost to a sub jovian but not quite gas giant.

estimated orbit is between 400 and 800 AU.  that's about 50 light hours or a little over 2 light days out on the low end and a little over 4 light days on the high end putting it most of the way to the TAU point if it's at the furthest estimates which means you'd get some interesting gravitational lensing out there facing the sun.

To put that in perspective.  the Voyager 1 space craft is 162.7 AU or about a light day away which is half the minimum distance for the supposed planet.

The new horizons probe is nearing 60 AU or less than half that.  about a third of a light day.  and the new farthest distance for the Kuiper belt is thought to be 80AU or more.

Finally.  we believe it to be somewhere in the constellation Taurus.