| The Kuiper Belt is like an Asteroid Belt Beyond | | | | is the distance of the Earth to the Sun.) The |
| Neptune | | | | Objects of this region are sometimes referred to |
| In 1950, the existence of a region of mostly icy | | | | as Trans-Neptunian Objects. |
| objects was predicted by Gerard Kuiper. There | | | | Short Period Comets |
| have now been about 1300 objects discovered in | | | | Short period comets are the ones like Halley's |
| this region. We can expect many more to be | | | | Comet that come into the inner Solar System |
| found. An estimate has been made that there are | | | | where we can see them and return in less than |
| hundreds of thousands of object in this belt over | | | | 200 years. The objects of the Kuiper Belt are |
| 100 kilometres across and perhaps trillions of | | | | generally in stable orbits, but if one their orbits is |
| smaller ones. | | | | sufficiently disrupted they can head towards the |
| As Mr. Kuiper predicted these objects seem to | | | | Sun as short period comets. |
| have a lot of ice in their composition as well as | | | | Long Period Comets |
| things like Methane and some rock. In fact except | | | | These are comets with very long return times, |
| for their orbit, they are similar to comets. | | | | so we would have to keep very good records |
| Distance from the Sun | | | | for many centuries or millennia to identify them |
| The Kuiper Belt is from 35 to 55 Astronomical | | | | as the same comet. These are more likely to |
| units from the Sun. (The Astronomical Unit or AU | | | | come from the Oort cloud than the Kuiper Belt. |