Tag

Kuiper Belt

All articles tagged with #kuiper belt

space24 days ago•12 min saved

Planet Nine Could Be Big Yet Hidden in a Deep Cosmic Dimness

Planet Nine, if it exists, could have several Earth masses and be over twice Earth’s diameter, but at hundreds of AU from the Sun it would reflect so little light that its brightness would be extraordinarily faint and often vanish into the background. The light that does reach Earth must travel outward and back, so the overall reflected flux drops roughly with the inverse fourth power of distance, making even a relatively large planet extremely hard to spot with current surveys. Ongoing searches, including the Rubin Observatory’s LSST, aim to detect it or tighten where it could lie; however, non-detection so far does not rule out a distant, faint world.

via Space Daily|

#astronomy #kuiper-belt #planet-nine

space25 days ago•12 min saved

Webb-Hubble survey uncovers unexpectedly sparse tiny Kuiper Belt objects

A deep Webb survey directly detected 27 faint trans-Neptunian objects (as small as ~5–10 km) with Hubble colors for some detections, finding a slower-than-expected rise in numbers toward smaller sizes. This suggests the Kuiper Belt was not ground down as much by collisions as some planet-formation models predicted, and that tiny TNOs retain clues to their primordial origins while maintaining color continuity with larger belt objects.

via Space Daily|

#hubble-space-telescope #james-webb-space-telescope #kuiper-belt

space25 days ago•136 min saved

Webb and Hubble Uncover 27 Tiny Distant Objects Beyond Neptune

The JWST and Hubble teamed up to identify 27 newly discovered Trans-Neptunian Objects beyond Neptune, each under about 40 km across. Using infrared measurements to determine sizes and analyzing color/composition, the researchers found that the smallest TNOs retain pristine surfaces, challenging expectations that collisions would heavily alter them. The deep survey—described in two papers in The Astronomical Journal—reveals similar size distributions for both the cold Kuiper Belt and the hot scattered-disk populations, implying planetesimal formation produced comparable sizes regardless of the disk’s conditions and raising questions about the rate or effects of distant impacts.

via Space|

#hubble-space-telescope #james-webb-space-telescope #kuiper-belt

space1 month ago•189 min saved

Beyond Pluto: The 1992 QB1 Discovery That Expanded Our Solar System

On Aug. 30, 1992, astronomers spotted 1992 QB1, the first confirmed Kuiper Belt object beyond Neptune and Pluto; a tiny ~100-mile-wide body, its discovery revealed a vast belt of icy worlds and reshaped our view of the solar system, which now includes thousands of Kuiper Belt objects and helped reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet after later discoveries and missions like New Horizons.

via Space|

#1992-qb1 #kuiper-belt #pluto

space2 months ago•118 min saved

New Horizons Awakens for fresh edge-of-solar-system science

NASA's New Horizons woke from a 321-day hibernation at the solar system’s edge with all systems reported healthy. The spacecraft has resumed science data transmission from about 5.9 billion miles from Earth (≈64 AU) and will study the heliopause and outer heliosphere with more sensitive instruments than the Voyager probes, sending data back across an ~8 hours 52 minutes light-time delay as it continues toward interstellar space.

via Live Science|

#heliopause #kuiper-belt #nasa

science2 months ago•50 min saved

New Horizons wakes from a long slumber to resume its Kuiper Belt voyage

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft woke on June 23 from a planned hibernation nearly 6 billion miles from Earth, resuming its distant Kuiper Belt investigations a decade after its Pluto flyby. Flight controllers say the probe is in good shape and will begin transmitting data gathered during the sleep period; hibernation has extended its lifespan, and the mission, focused through 2029, could continue beyond if the spacecraft remains healthy—as it eyes more objects beyond Pluto and toward interstellar space.

via Yahoo|

#kuiper-belt #nasa #new-horizons

space2 months ago•195 min saved

New Horizons wakes to chart the solar system's icy frontier

NASA’s New Horizons has awakened from its longest sleep, about 5.9 billion miles from Earth, to resume transmitting data from the Kuiper Belt and continue studying Pluto, Arrokoth, and distant icy bodies. Launched in 2006, the probe’s historic Pluto flyby in 2015 and subsequent Kuiper Belt observations are helping scientists understand how planets form. The spacecraft remains healthy and, if it stays that way, could extend its mission toward interstellar space beyond 2029 as it keeps gathering valuable outer-solar-system data.

via CNN|

#kuiper-belt #nasa #new-horizons

science2 months ago•6 min saved

New Horizons: A rapid Pluto flyby that yielded a slow, rich science return

NASA’s New Horizons sped three billion miles to Pluto for a single, high-speed flyby at more than 30,000 mph because it wasn’t designed to brake into orbit; a powerful launch and a gravity assist from Jupiter got it there in under a decade. The mission prioritized data collection during closest approach and briefly went radio-silent to maximize science. Downlink of the roughly 50 billion bits of data took about 15 months due to distance, limited transmitter power, and shared antenna time, but revealed Pluto’s heart-shaped Sputnik Planitia, tall water-ice mountains, a hazy atmosphere, and signs of geological activity, reshaping our view of this distant world.

via The Times of India|

#flyby #jupiter-gravity-assist #kuiper-belt

space3 months ago•23 min saved

New Horizons Wakes to Edge of Solar System

NASA’s New Horizons has awakened from a 321‑day hibernation about 64 astronomical units from Earth (roughly 10 billion km) and will begin sending back a year’s worth of stored data while studying the outer heliosphere’s termination shock—the boundary where the solar wind slows and blends with interstellar material. Having passed Pluto and Arrokoth, the probe is now venturing farther into the Kuiper Belt region and beyond, with no new target identified; its path could see it leaving the Kuiper Belt around 2028–2029 as it continues toward interstellar space, with an approximate nine‑hour one‑way radio link and a current “green” status from mission control.

via ZME Science|

#heliosphere #interstellar-space #kuiper-belt

science3 months ago•5 min saved

New Horizons Awakens to Continue the Solar-Wind Frontier

NASA’s New Horizons woke from a nearly yearlong hibernation about 6 billion miles from Earth and is expected to operate into the 2050s, studying how the solar wind slows as it moves through the Kuiper Belt and planning one more flyby with Rubin Observatory help. Measurements show solar wind is about 13-15% slower at the edge than near Earth.

via Mashable|

#arrokoth #kuiper-belt #new-horizons

space3 months ago•103 min saved

New Horizons Wakes Up at the Solar System’s Edge to Study the Solar Wind

NASA's New Horizons woke from a year-long hibernation nearly 6 billion miles from Earth and will begin transmitting data gathered over the last 321 days. The spacecraft is healthy and will soon study hydrogen in the outer heliosphere and the termination shock—the solar wind boundary at the edge of our solar system—as it speeds farther from the Sun.

via Space|

#kuiper-belt #nasa #new-horizons

space3 months ago•13 min saved

New Horizons Unveils Pluto's 1,000-km Icy Heart, Rewriting Distant-World Science

NASA's New Horizons completed a nine-year, 3-billion-mile voyage to Pluto, flyby in 2015 revealed a 1,000-km heart-shaped glacier of frozen nitrogen and a landscape so young it challenged prior models; now 5.7 billion miles away, the probe is in hibernation awaiting NASA's funding decisions, with data still trickling back and potential wake-up in 2026 if approved.

via 19FortyFive|

#kuiper-belt #nasa #new-horizons

science3 months ago•2 min saved

Small Kuiper Belt Object Displays a Fragile Atmosphere, Defying Expectations

Astronomers using a 2024 stellar occultation detected signs of a thin, possibly temporary atmosphere around the tiny Kuiper Belt object 2002 XV93 (about 500 km across), challenging assumptions that such small bodies can hold an atmosphere. Any atmosphere would likely last under 1,000 years without replenishment, and no frozen surface gases were found by JWST to fuel it. Two scenarios are proposed: recent internal gas release or a comet impact. If confirmed, this would be the first atmosphere detected on a trans-Neptunian object other than Pluto, prompting further observations to understand the mechanism.

via BBC Sky at Night Magazine|

#2002-xv93 #atmosphere #kuiper-belt

space3 months ago•8 min saved

Planet Nine Debate Persists as New Distant-World Detections Complicate the Search

The article reviews renewed evidence and ongoing controversy over Planet Nine, noting that irregular orbits of distant Kuiper Belt objects and new distant bodies like 2023 KQ14 have kept the hypothesis viable but unproven. Long orbital periods and limited data mean there is no definitive detection yet; if a ninth planet exists, it would likely lie farther than ~500 AU. Ongoing ground- and space-based observations—and future missions—are needed to clarify whether a massive unseen planet shapes these orbits.

via SciTechDaily|

#kuiper-belt #outer-solar-system #planet-nine

space4 months ago•3 min saved

Fragile Atmosphere Detected on Tiny Kuiper World 2002 XV93

Astronomers using stellar occultations detected a very thin atmosphere around the small trans-Neptunian object 2002 XV93, making it only the second TNO known to have an atmosphere after Pluto. The atmosphere is about 5–10 million times thinner than Earth's and is expected to vanish within 100–1,000 years unless replenished, possibly by cryovolcanic activity beneath the icy surface or by a recent impact. Observations via occultation are ongoing, with JWST follow-up planned to determine its composition and whether the atmosphere is fading or replenished.

via BBC Science Focus Magazine|

#astronomy #atmosphere #kuiper-belt