Tuesday, November 28, 2017

There are 3 more different types of KBO's in the Kuiper Belt. They include "Resonant" and "Scattered" KBO's along with an unnamed object. Plutinos or also known as Resonant KBO's are a common object to see closer to Neptune. They are referred to as Plutinos because, what do you know, Pluto is a resonant object, because it is under the influence of Neptune. These objects follow different resonances of Neptune, the plutinos are a 3:2 resonance and they orbit 2 times for every 3 Neptune orbits. This also happens with other KBO except they are in a 2:1 resonance and generally speaking rest farther away from the sun than the 3:2 KBO's. A Scattered KBO was also under Neptune's influence, but these objects got too close, resulting the KBO to go off into a "scattered" orbit. The orbit becomes crazy and the KBO's end up orbiting closer then Neptune at some points and can even send them hundreds of AU away also.  The very last type of KBO known is one that might not even be legitimate. Only two objects have been found alike thus giving scientists hesitance to name it a "type".  These KBO's orbit so far away it is unknown whether there are more, they never get closer than 76 AU and can orbit as far away as 1000 or more AU. Another very interesting sub category of KBO is called the "Binary KBO" they are relatively similar in size and they orbit each other. These are especially interesting because the formally known 9th planet is a Binary KBO. Pluto and Charon orbit each other, and it is unknown which is the moon and which is the KBO.  This is a relatively common thing to happen with these objects.




These are different Kuiper belt objects compared too other objects in the solar system.





http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Participate/learn/What-We-Know.php?link=The-Kuiper-Belt
The objects previously mentioned are not just random objects in the Kuiper belt, they are placed in categories, as to compare them to other objects like themselves.  The characterization of KBO's varies depending on the distance, color, and size of the object.  Just like a Planet or a Moon in our solar system KBO's also have orbits. These orbits are also eccentric, just like our planets, but the objects in the Kuiper belt can have extreme and very mild circumstances of orbits. There are about 5 different classifications of KBO's in the Kuiper Belt.  A "Cold Classical" KBO is consistent with a specific range away from the sun, which is between 42 and 48 AU. These objects as opposed to others in the Kuiper belt, generally they are redder and smaller, and maintain their orbits within this 6 AU range. This shows to the fact that the orbits of these objects aren't very eccentric. These are not the only object's in the KB as there are not only "Cold classical" but also "Hot Classical" KBO's. These "Hot Classical" KBO's are similar, as they also are generally located between 42 and 48 AU, but their orbits are so eccentric that they move outside of this zone in their orbits. The Hot classical objects tend to be larger than the cold classical objects also.  Pluto is in its own group of KBO's that are different than the cold and hot objects.



Potential orbits of KBO's








http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Participate/learn/What-We-Know.php?link=The-Kuiper-Belt

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

The kuiper belt is home to many different objects of varying sizes and shapes. After the discovery of the first Kuiper Belt object or KBO many others were identified. One of the first large KBO’s was named Quaoar and it was about 1,300 km in diameter. This was the first large KBO to be found and it even got its picture taken, dating back before the date in which it was officially founded in 2002. For a very long time it was thought that plutowas another planet and as recently as 2006 it was discovered that pluto is possibly in the kuiper belt, and it was renamed a dwarf planet. This cane about because of the discovery of what astronomers then thought was a “10th planet.” This small pluto sized “planet” was named eris and sparked the debate of what a planet should be characterized as.  The first mission to pluto was launched in 2006 and it was called New Horizons, its object was to look at pluto and the kuiper belt region kf the solar system. This would be the first time that a space mission was sent to pluto. And the first time the Kuiper belt would be close up investigated.











https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/kbos