Kuiper belt

The Kuiper belt is a region beyond Neptune containing many small icy bodies in orbit around the Sun. It includes dwarf planets such as Pluto and preserves remnants of the early Solar System.

Neptune: Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the outermost major planet in the Solar System. Its orbit marks the inner boundary of the Kuiper belt and shapes many objects within it.
Orbital resonance: An orbital resonance occurs when orbiting bodies exert regular, repeated gravitational influence on each other. Resonances with Neptune explain the organized orbital populations within the belt.
Pluto: Pluto is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt with a large moon, Charon, and a complex icy surface. It is the belt's best-known member and a world explored at close range.
Solar System formation: Solar System formation is the process by which the Sun, planets, and smaller bodies developed from a rotating cloud of gas and dust. The belt's icy bodies preserve material left over from this process.
Trans-Neptunian object: A trans-Neptunian object is a body that orbits the Sun beyond Neptune. This broader category includes Kuiper belt objects and bodies in more distant reservoirs.
Kirkwood gap: A Kirkwood gap is a region in the main asteroid belt where orbital resonances with Jupiter leave few asteroids. It offers a comparable example of resonances sculpting a small-body population.
Arrokoth: Arrokoth is a contact-binary Kuiper belt object visited by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft in 2019. Its preserved, gently joined lobes offer clues to how small bodies formed.
Protoplanetary disk: A protoplanetary disk is a rotating disk of gas and dust surrounding a young star, where planets and smaller bodies form. The Kuiper belt's objects began as planet-building material in the Sun's disk.
Classical Kuiper belt object: A classical Kuiper belt object follows an orbit that is not locked in a strong resonance with Neptune. These objects occupy the belt's relatively undisturbed main population.
Neptune migration: Neptune migration is the outward movement of Neptune during the Solar System's early evolution. Neptune's movement helps explain the belt's present distribution and resonant objects.

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