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Article: Reflecting on the Kuiper belt. (Astronomy).(origin, size of satellites in Kuiper Belt as determined by surface reflectivity )(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- September 21, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Over the past 2 years, scientists have discovered that 7 of the roughly 500 known objects in the Kuiper belt--the reservoir of comets and other frozen objects just beyond Neptune's orbit--have moons (SN: 5/4/02, p. 285). Several of the moons appear nearly as large as the bodies they circle.
According to a common theory, each moon was created when an interloping body smashed into a large Kuiper belt object. However, the estimated number of potential impactors is too few to explain the number of large moons, says S. Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.
In the October Astronomical Journal, he suggests a solution. Stern proposes ...