The Kuiper belt as a research area encompasses the systematic investigation of the trans-Neptunian region of the Solar System populated by icy planetesimals, dwarf planets, and small bodies beyond Neptune’s orbit. Research focuses on the dynamical structure, composition, and collisional evolution of Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) to constrain models of planetary formation, migration, and early Solar System architecture. This field integrates observational surveys, orbital dynamics, spectroscopy, and thermophysical modeling to characterize size distributions, surface and volatile properties, and resonant populations, and to understand the Kuiper belt’s role as a reservoir for short-period comets and as a probe of primordial circumstellar disk conditions.
The first observations of Pluto by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal dramatic phenomena on its surface, like seasonal cycles of volatile ice redistribution across its surface, and material being pulled from ...
Astronomy
Jun 3, 2025
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A small team led by Sihao Cheng, Martin A. and Helen Chooljian Member in the Institute for Advanced Study's School of Natural Sciences, has discovered an extraordinary trans-Neptunian object (TNO), named 2017 OF201, at the ...
Astronomy
May 22, 2025
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University of Central Florida (UCF) scientists and their collaborators discovered new insights into the formation of distant icy objects in space beyond Neptune, offering a deeper understanding of our solar system's formation ...
Astrobiology
Apr 25, 2025
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Exploration of the outer solar system may be getting a boost from the Vera Rubin Observatory (VRO). When this gigantic telescope opens its eye later in 2025, it begins a decade-long survey of the ever-changing sky. As part ...
Astronomy
Mar 17, 2025
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The puzzle of predicting how three gravitationally bound bodies move in space has challenged mathematicians for centuries, and has most recently been popularized in the novel and television show "3 Body Problem." There's ...
Astronomy
Mar 4, 2025
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Billions of years ago, in the frigid outer reaches of our solar system, two icy worlds collided. Rather than destroying each other in a cosmic catastrophe, they spun together like a celestial snowman, finally separating while ...
Planetary Sciences
Jan 6, 2025
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New studies led by researchers at the University of Central Florida offer for the first time a clearer picture of how the outer solar system formed and evolved based on analyses of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) and centaurs.
Astronomy
Dec 19, 2024
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Trying to understand the makeup and evolution of the solar system's Kuiper belt has kept researchers busy since it was hypothesized soon after the discovery of Pluto in 1930. In particular, binary pairs of objects there are ...
Pluto may have been downgraded from full-planet status, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hold a special place in scientist's hearts. There are practical and sentimental reasons for that—Pluto has tantalizing mysteries to ...
Space Exploration
Nov 14, 2024
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