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Chapter 7: Problem 10

What are the asteroid belt, the Kuiper belt, and the Oort cloud? Where are they located? How do the objects found in these three regions compare?

Short Answer

Expert verified
The Asteroid Belt is located between Mars and Jupiter and contains rocky or metallic asteroids. The Kuiper Belt is beyond Neptune's orbit, around 30 to 50 AU from the Sun comprising mostly frozen volatiles ('ices'). The Oort cloud, a theoretical region, surrounds the Sun at a distance of up to 50,000 AU, and is believed to be the origin of long-period comets. The objects in these regions vary from rocky and metallic in the Asteroid belt, to icy in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud.

Step by step solution

01

Introduction of Asteroid Belt

The Asteroid belt is a circumstellar disc in the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets. Many of these asteroids are rocky or metallic in nature.
02

Introduction of Kuiper Belt

The Kuiper belt, sometimes called the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt, is a circumstellar disc in the Solar System beyond the orbit of Neptune and extends roughly from 30 to 50 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, but it is far larger and contains objects composed largely of frozen volatiles, for example, water, ammonia and methane.
03

Introduction of Oort cloud

The Oort cloud is a theoretical cloud of predominantly icy planetesimals believed to surround the Sun at a distance of up to 50,000 AU. This is where long-period comets are believed to originate.
04

Comparison of Objects in the three regions

Objects within the asteroid belt are composed predominantly of rock and metal, while bodies in the Kuiper belt and Oort cloud are composed largely of frozen volatiles ('ices'), such as water, ammonia and methane. Because it is closer to the Sun, bodies in the asteroid belt are warmer and have less icy composition compared to the Kupier belt and the Oort cloud.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

(a) Find the mass of a hypothetical spherical asteroid \(2 \mathrm{~km}\) in diameter and composed of rock with average density \(2500 \mathrm{~kg} / \mathrm{m}^{3}\). (b) Find the speed required to escape from the surface of this asteroid. (c) A typical jogging speed is \(3 \mathrm{~m} / \mathrm{s}\). What would happen to an astronaut who decided to go for a jog on this asteroid?

There are no asteroids with an atmosphere. Discuss why not.

Suppose Mars Global Surveyor had discovered magnetized regions in the lowlands of Mars. How would this discovery have affected our understanding of the evolution of the Martian interior?

Imagine a trans-Neptunian object with roughly the same mass as Earth but located \(50 \mathrm{AU}\) from the Sun. (a) What do you think this object would be made of? Explain your reasoning. (b) On the basis of this speculation, assume a reasonable density for this object and calculate its diameter. How many times bigger or smaller than Earth would it be?

Do all the planets orbit the Sun in the same direction? Are all of the orbits circular?
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