Important Notice: Our web hosting provider recently started charging us for additional visits, which was unexpected. In response, we're seeking donations. Depending on the situation, we may explore different monetization options for our Community and Expert Contributors. It's crucial to provide more returns for their expertise and offer more Expert Validated Answers or AI Validated Answers. Learn more about our hosting issue here.

Why are most objects in the Kuiper belt binary?

0
Posted

Why are most objects in the Kuiper belt binary?

0

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is hot on the trail of an intriguing new class of solar system object that might be called a Pluto “mini-me” — dim and fleeting objects that travel in pairs in the frigid, mysterious outer realm of the solar system called the Kuiper Belt. In results published today in the journal Nature, a team of astronomers led by Christian Veillet of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Corporation (CFHT) in Kamuela, Hawaii, is reporting the most detailed observations yet of the Kuiper Belt object (KBO) 1998 WW31, which was discovered four years ago and found to be a binary last year by the CFHT. Pluto and its moon Charon and countless icy bodies known as KBOs inhabit a vast region of space called the Kuiper Belt. This “junkyard” of material left over from the solar system’s formation extends from the orbit of Neptune out to 100 times as far as the Earth is from the Sun (which is about 93 million miles) and is the source of at least half the short-period comets that whiz

Related Questions

Thanksgiving questions

*Sadly, we had to bring back ads too. Hopefully more targeted.