CAS AS 100 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Kuiper Belt, Giant Planet, Soot
19 May 2016
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Document Summary
Has a 248 year orbit and comes closer to sun than neptune. Neptune orbits the sun 3 times for every 2 of pluto"s orbit. Its composition does not match terrestrials or jovians. It is basically a comet but not even the largest of its kind. One of the planetesimals in kuiper belt could"ve become a 5th jovian planet but the materials density was too low at this great distance from the sun. Eris was discovered and is bigger than pluto. Eris is twice as far as pluto from the sun and has a 557 year orbit. Eris must sometimes come closer to the sun than pluto. Four objects in the belt (pluto, eris, makemake, haumea) are classified as dwarf planets because they are large enough to be round but have not yet cleared their orbital neighborhoods. All of these comets have same composition but just have differing sizes.
