NATS 1880 Midterm: Test #3 Study Notes This is the study note for the information starting from the beginning of the winter term with The Kuiper Belt and Asteroids and ending with black holes and the death of a star. Important aspects bolded.
16 Oct 2011
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Document Summary
The material in the kuiper belt is probably the remains of material in the solar disk that did not get incorporated into a planet. This is a reservoir of icy rocky bodies that orbit between 50-500 au from the sun. They are coplanar (on the same plane) as the planets. This is where short period comets (orbits of less than. Another large reservoir of material is the oort. This is a globe of icy rocky bodies that completely surrounds the solar system. This may be the remains of the cloud out of which our sun first formed. This is the likely source of long period comets. The oort cloud may extend out as far as 15000 au. Although the asteroids, comets and meteors we see are too small to be likely to carry life they can provide important evidence in our study of life"s origins, since many are unchanged since the formation of our solar system.
