The Kuiper Belt

describe the location and nature of the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud and show an appreciation of their associations with comets

In recent years astronomers have discovered that there is a belt of millions of small objects beyond Neptune from 30 AU to 50 AU.

The solar system formed from a disc of material around the Sun. The inner dense part of the disc formed the planets whilst the less dense outer part of the disc is what we know now as the Kuiper belt.

Many of the objects in the Kuiper belt are very large and some astronomers would classify Pluto (at 39 AU) not as a planet but just another Kuiper belt object.

Triton, one of Neptune's satellites, may also have originated from the Kuiper belt.Its retrograde orbit is evidence for this. The Kuiper belt is certainly the source of short term comets.