Kuiper belt stretches for billions of miles
A study by NASA's New Horizons probe has revealed that the Kuiper belt, located in the vicinity of the former planet Pluto, could be much larger. The new data, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, indicates that this bagel-shaped region may extend billions of miles further, even up to 80 AU from the Sun.
The New Horizons probe, which has already successfully explored Pluto, continues its mission, revealing amazing details about this vast structure of the solar system. Scientists are even considering the possibility of a second belt, which has not been known until now.
New Horizons was launched in 2006. It became the first spacecraft to visit Pluto in 2015 and has since been exploring the Kuiper belt as part of an extended mission, travelling through a region filled with frozen remnants of the early Solar System. NASA plans to extend the mission until 2028 so that the spacecraft can explore even more icy objects and structures in the Kuiper belt.
The spacecraft's Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter (SDC) detected dust levels higher than expected. The dust consists of the remnants of violent collisions that occurred between objects in the Kuiper belt.
Source: Gizmodo