Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) are thought to be the dominant source of interplanetary dust particles in the outer Solar System due to both collisions between KBOs and their continual bombardment by interstellar dust particles. New measurements by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft show higher than model-predicted levels of interstellar dust as the spacecraft approaches the putative outer edge of the Kuiper Belt.
Interplanetary dust particles carry information about the birth and evolution of planetary bodies within our Solar System.
The orbital distribution of these dust particles is driven by the forces of gravity from the Sun and planets, radiation pressure etc. Additionally, the size and mass of individual particles are constantly evolving due to sputtering and mutual collisions.
While Jupiter-family comets and asteroids dominate the production of interplanetary dust particles in the inner Solar System, the Kuiper Belt is the dominant source of the particles in the outer Solar System from either mutual KBO collisions or interstellar dust bombardment.
Speeding through the outer edges of the Kuiper Belt, the New Horizons Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter (SDC) instrument is now detecting higher than expected levels of interplanetary dust.
The readings contribute to a growing body of evidence that suggests the outer edge of the main Kuiper Belt could extend billions of km farther than current estimates — or that there could even be a second belt beyond the one we already know.
“New Horizons is making the first direct measurements of interplanetary dust far beyond Neptune and Pluto, so every observation could lead to a discovery,” said lead author Alex Doner, a graduate student at the University of Colorado Boulder who serves as SDC lead.
“The idea that we might have detected an extended Kuiper Belt — with a whole new population of objects colliding and producing more dust — offers another clue in solving the mysteries of the Solar System’s most…
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