Kuiper belt - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Artist's rendering of the Kuiper Belt and hypothetical more distant Oort cloud

The Kuiper belt is an area of the Solar System beyond the orbit of Neptune (at 30 astronomical units) to 50 AU from the Sun.

The objects within the Kuiper Belt together with the members of the scattered disk beyond, are together called trans-Neptunian.

Many objects such as dwarf planets in the Kuiper belt are much bigger than the ones in the asteroid belt and are round. At least some Kuiper belt objects are icebound.

The first objects in the Kuiper belt to be found were Pluto and Charon (moon) but the belt was only identified and named in 1992 when more Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) were found. A few thousand have since been discovered and more than 70,000 KBOs over 100 km (62 mi) in diameter are thought to exist.

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Solar System

Image:Solar System Template 2.png

The Sun

rect 0 0 90 35 The Sun

Mercury

circle 112 18 6 Mercury

Venus

circle 153 18 8 Venus

Earth and the Moon

circle 203 8 4 The Moon circle 194 18 8 Earth

Mars and satellites

circle 233 18 8 Mars circle 239 13 3 Phobos and Deimos

Ceres and the asteroid belt
- by placing the rectangle code for the asteroid belt AFTER Ceres, Ceres is "on top" (and can co-exist)

circle 271 18 8 Ceres rect 256 0 288 35 The main asteroid belt

Jupiter and satellites
- by placing the rectangle code for the Rings of Jupiter AFTER Jupiter, Jupiter is "on top" (and can co-exist)

circle 317 18 15 Jupiter circle 329 5 6 Moons of Jupiter rect 298 15 335 20 Rings of Jupiter

Saturn and satellites
- by placing the rectangle code for the Rings of Saturn AFTER Saturn, Saturn is "on top" (and can co-exist)

circle 372 18 12 Saturn circle 381 7 6 Moons of Saturn rect 353 5 389 31 Rings of Saturn

Uranus and satellites
- by placing the rectangle code for the Rings of Uranus AFTER Uranus, Uranus is "on top" (and can co-exist)

circle 418 18 12 Uranus circle 427 10 6 Moons of Uranus rect 408 4 429 34 Rings of Uranus

Neptune and satellites
- by placing the rectangle code for the Rings of Neptune AFTER Neptune, Neptune is "on top" (and can co-exist)

circle 462 18 12 Neptune circle 471 10 3 Moons of Neptune rect 441 9 485 28 Rings of Neptune

Pluto, satellites, and the Kuiper belt
- by placing the rectangle code for the Kuiper belt AFTER Pluto, Pluto is "on top" (and can co-exist)

circle 504 18 8 Pluto circle 508 13 3 Moons of Pluto

Haumea and satellites
- by placing the rectangle code for the Kuiper Belt AFTER Haumea, Haumea is "on top" (and can co-exist)

circle 534 18 8 Haumea circle 538 13 3 Moons of Haumea

Makemake
- by placing the rectangle code for the Kuiper Belt AFTER Makemake, Makemake is "on top" (and can co-exist)

circle 567 18 8 Makemake rect 490 0 580 35 The Kuiper Belt

Eris, Dysnomia, and the Scattered disc
- by placing the rectangle code for the Scattered disc AFTER Eris, Eris is "on top" (and can co-exist)

circle 596 18 8 Eris circle 600 14 3 Dysnomia rect 581 0 610 35 The Scattered Disc rect 623 0 640 35 The Hills Cloud rect 641 0 666 35 The Oort Cloud

desc none

- setting this to "bottom-right" will display a (rather large) icon linking to the graphic, if desired

Notes:
Details on the new coding for clickable images is here: [1]
The smaller planets have a bit of an overlap just to ensure they're locatable, especially in the belts.
While it may look strange, it's important to keep the codes for a particular system in order. The clickable coding treats the first object created in an area as the one on top.
- I've placed moons on "top" so that their smaller circles won't disappear "under" their respective planets or dwarf planets.
The "poly" code would be more appropriate for the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. However, there appears to be a bug with that aspect of the code.
- I've compensated by using oversized circles for those moon groups, and tucking them UNDER their planets for now.
The Sun is a rectangle as that approximates the edge closely enough for the purposes of this template.
I've guessed as to the boundaries for the KB, SD, and OC - if they need adjustment, load the image into Paint and use the pencil tool to find the appropriate coordinates.

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Planets	Terrestrials Mercury Venus Earth Mars Giants Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Dwarfs Ceres Pluto Haumea Makemake Eris
Moons	Earth Moon Mars Phobos Deimos Jupiter Ganymede Callisto Io Europa all 95 Saturn Titan Rhea Iapetus Dione Tethys Enceladus Mimas Hyperion Phoebe all 83 Uranus Titania Oberon Umbriel Ariel Miranda all 27 Neptune Triton Proteus Nereid all 14 Pluto Charon Nix Hydra Kerberos Styx Haumean Hiʻiaka Makemake S/2015 (136472) 1 Eris Dysnomia
Small Solar System bodies	Comets Damocloids Meteoroids Minor planets Planetesimal Near-Earth objects Asteroid belt Asteroids Ceres Pallas Juno Vesta first 1000 Kirkwood gap Jupiter trojans Trans-Neptunian objects Kuiper belt Plutinos Scattered disc Oort cloud Hills cloud

Rings	Jovian Saturnian (Rhean) Uranian Neptunian Haumean
Hypothetical objects	Planet Nine Planet X Theia Tyche Vulcan Nemesis
Exploration	Colonization astronomy space stations Space probes Moon Mars Ceres Asteroids Neptune
Formation and evolution	Accretion Accretion disk Excretion disk Circumstellar disc Cosmic dust Giant impact hypothesis Interstellar cloud Interstellar medium Interstellar space Kuiper belt Molecular cloud Nebular hypothesis Oort cloud Outer space Planetary system Planetesimal Planet formation Protoplanetary disk Scattered disc Star formation