03-14-2012, 12:08 AM
Neptune on tiptoes
The formation and development of the
solar system, long a topic of study for philosophers and scientists,
is
today often used as a case study for the formation and development of
planetary systems around other
stars. One probe of the early history
of the solar system is the current configuration of the Kuiper Belt, a
disc-shaped
region of icy objects beyond the orbit of Neptune that stretches
between about thirty to fifty
astronomical units (AU) from the Sun.
Pluto and Eris are the best known Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), and
there
are thought to be as many as one hundred thousand bodies larger in
diameter than about 100 km
out there. http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-nep ... ptoes.html
The formation and development of the
solar system, long a topic of study for philosophers and scientists,
is
today often used as a case study for the formation and development of
planetary systems around other
stars. One probe of the early history
of the solar system is the current configuration of the Kuiper Belt, a
disc-shaped
region of icy objects beyond the orbit of Neptune that stretches
between about thirty to fifty
astronomical units (AU) from the Sun.
Pluto and Eris are the best known Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), and
there
are thought to be as many as one hundred thousand bodies larger in
diameter than about 100 km
out there. http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-nep ... ptoes.html