Beyond Neptune, the solar system is populated with an entirely different type of object, unlike our
terrestrial or jovain planets.
It really started with the discovery of Pluto in 1930
.
Far out in the solar system we find
hundreds of icy objects
which were
first posited
by
Gerard Kuiper
in
the 1950’s. This region is now known as the
Kuiper Belt
. Here is a rare
picture of the Kuiper belt
. The
first of these objects discovered is, of course,
Pluto
.
For nearly twenty years
now, more and more of
these objects have been identified, with
orbits similar to Pluto’s
. These newly discovered bodies are the
reason that Pluto’s status as a planet first came into question.
These newly discovered objects now
number in the hundreds
.