Do our scientists and astronomers know everything about our solar system? Some people argue that if they can know about the stars located at a distance of billions of light years, then in that sense the edge of the solar system is very close to us. In such a case, the answer to this question should be yes. But in reality it is not so. The truth is that a large part of the solar system is a puzzle for our scientists. Another example of this was seen recently when our scientists found such objects on the edge of the solar system, looking at which it seems that they have perhaps discovered another Kuiper belt or ring.
The Kuiper Belt, near Neptune, is a cold, ring-shaped region filled with many icy bodies. It is home to Pluto, once thought to be a full-fledged planet, Arrokoth, and many other bodies. Recently, astronomers have noticed an increase in the number of these bodies, known as Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs).
These newly discovered objects are between 70 and 90 astronomical units from the Sun. One astronomical unit is the average distance between Earth and the Sun. But this discovery is unique because these objects are so far away from the inner population of KBOs. The gap is so large that experts say it practically feels like an entirely new Kuiper Belt in its own right.
A new, peer-reviewed study authored by NASA’s New Horizons Kuiper Belt search team reports the detection of an unexpected population of very distant bodies in the Kuiper Belt. The discovery suggests the solar system may have formed from a much larger protostellar disk, and… pic.twitter.com/slGrznmGS3
— NASA New Horizons (@NASANewHorizons) September 4, 2024