Kuiper belt
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Kuiper belt:
see cometcomet[Gr.,=longhaired], a small celestial body consisting mostly of dust and gases that moves in an elongated elliptical or nearly parabolic orbit around the sun or another star. Comets visible from the earth can be seen for periods ranging from a few days to several months.
..... Click the link for more information. ; Kuiper, Gerard PeterKuiper, Gerard Peter or Gerrit Pieter
, 1905–73, American astronomer, b. the Netherlands. Kuiper is considered to be the father of modern planetary science for his wide ranging studies of the solar system.
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Kuiper belt
A disk of some 107 to 109 comets that hugs the plane of the planetary system and lies between about 35 and 1000 AU from the Sun. Chiron may have come from this disk.Collins Dictionary of Astronomy © Market House Books Ltd, 2006
Kuiper Belt
[′kī·pər ‚belt] (astronomy)
A vast reservoir of icy bodies in the region of the solar system beyond the orbit of the planet Neptune, with diameters estimated in the 100-1200-kilometer (60-750-mile) range. Also known as Edgeworth-Kuiper belt.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.