Lesson 13: Kuiper Belt and Dwarf Planets Part 1
Who was Gerard Kuiper?
1. He was regarded by many as the father of _______________________
________________________ science.
2. Gerard Kuiper was born in village in
_______________________ in ________.
3. Interestingly he had incredibly sharp
_________________, with the ability to see
______________________ stars.
4. He became a ______________________ in 1937 and taught at the University of
________________ and the University of ___________________.
5. He predicted the presence of a ___________________________ beyond
Neptune that would explain some mysteries surrounding ______________.
6. Gerard Kuiper died in 1973 at the age of _____ from a ____________________.
Kuiper Belt
7. A ______________________ in the solar system
beyond Neptune’s orbit that is believed to contain many
______________ and asteroids.
8. The Kuiper belt is similar to the
_______________________ in that it contains many small
remnants.
9. The ____________________ was the first spacecraft to visit the region of the
Kuiper Belt in 1983.
10. Most of the information we know about the Kuiper Belt comes from the
__________________________________.
11. Neptune’s moon _____________ and Saturn’s moon
___________ are both thought to be objects captured from the
Kuiper belt due to the fact that they orbit their planet in the
_________________ direction.
12. Detecting objects in the Kuiper Belt is difficult because they are so faint and
move so slowly. It takes them ______________ of years to orbit the sun due to
their great distances from the sun.
13. There have been over ________________ objects identified in the Kuiper belt so
far.
Dwarf Planets
14. In order to be classified as a dwarf planet, an object must meet the following criteria:
a. _________________ the sun.
b. Has enough _____________ to assume a nearly _____________ shape.
c. Is not a ______________.
d. Has not __________________ the area around it’s ______________.
15. The first 5 dwarf planets identified were; Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Makemake, and
________________.
16. When discovered in 1801 everyone thought ____________ was a _____________
between Mars and Jupiter.
17. Then Ceres was classified as an______________.
18. With the definition of dwarf planets, we now
classify Ceres as a ______________________________.
19. Ceres is unique in that it is located in the
______________________________ and not the Kuiper
Belt.
20. Ceres was the first:
a. ________________ to be discovered in the asteroid belt
b. Dwarf planet to be ________________ by a spacecraft (Dawn in 2015)
21. Ceres is named after the Roman goddess of ___________________________.
22. Ceres has no ___________________, only sporadic water vapor.
23. From data collected from the Dawn spacecraft, it is believed that Ceres has an
________________________ ocean.
Answers:
Ky-per
1. Modern planetary
2. North Holland, 1905
3. Eye-sight, magnitude 7.5
He had extraordinarily sharp eyesight, allowing him to see with the naked eye magnitude 7.5
stars, about four times fainter than those visible to normal eyes.
4. US citizen, Chicago, Arizona
Kuiper studied the planets... at a time when they were scarcely of interest to other
astronomers," said Bill McKinnon, a co-investigator on the New Horizons mission to explore
the Kuiper Belt, the region of space named in Kuiper's honor. "But with new telescopes and
instrumentation, he showed that there were great things to discover, which is as true
today as it was then."
5. Belt of objects, comets
The Kuiper Belt is named for astronomer Gerard Kuiper, who published a scientific paper in
1951 that speculated about objects beyond Pluto. Kuiper's work didn't actually predict the
populations of objects we observe in the region named for him, or crucially, their
relationship with Neptune.
6. 68, heart attack.
7. Region, comets
8. Asteroid belt
9. Pioneer 10
The first spacecraft to enter the Kuiper Belt region was NASA's Pioneer 10 spacecraft, when it
crossed into the space beyond Neptune's orbit in 1983. But that spacecraft didn't visit
any of the icy worlds in the region—none other than Pluto had been discovered yet.
(Voyager 2 visited Neptune's moon Triton in 1989, and Cassini visited Saturn's moon Phoebe in
2004—both could be worlds originally from the Kuiper Belt that have escaped.)
10. Hubble Space Telescope
11. Triton, Phoebe, opposite
12. Hundreds
13. 2,000
14.
a. Orbits
b. Mass, round
c. Moon
d. Cleared, obit
15. Ceres (seer’ eez, Pluto, Eris (ee’ris), Makemake (mah’key mah’key,) and Haumea (how’
may a)
16. Ceres, planet
17. Asteroid
18. Dwarf planet
19. Asteroid belt
20. A. object, B. visited
First to be visited by the spacecraft Dawn in 2015
21. Ceres is named for the Roman goddess of corn and harvests. The word cereal
comes from the same name.
22. Atmosphere
23. Underground (subsurface)
TimeLine:
1930- Pluto was discovered
1951 - Gerard Kuiper published a paper speculating about the objects
surrounding Pluto
1983 - Pioneer 10 crossed into space beyond Neptune’s orbit
1992 - A second KBO (Kuiper Belt Object) was found by astronomers
David Jewitt and Jane Luu, After searching for five years.
2015 - New Horizons Spacecraft sent to explore the Kuiper belt