Hubble Telescope Observes Worlds Past Pluto
- 10 years ago
The Hubble Space Telescope has found two small ice covered worlds in the midst of the Kuiper Belt on the edge of our solar system, an estimated 4 billion miles away from Earth.
The Hubble Space Telescope has found two small ice covered worlds in the midst of the Kuiper Belt on the edge of our solar system, an estimated 4 billion miles away from Earth.
This discovery has led scientists to look for other objects in the Kuiper Belt that could be studied more closely by the New Horizons spacecraft probe after it’s done orbiting Pluto.
Icy objects left over from the formation of our solar system an estimated four and a half billion years ago make up the Kuiper Belt, which was first hypothesized in 1951, but wasn’t discovered until the early 1990’s.
John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C is quoted as saying: "Once again the Hubble Space Telescope has demonstrated the ability to explore the universe in new and unexpected ways. Hubble science is at its best when it works in concert with other NASA missions and ground-based observatories."
More than one thousand Kuiper Belt objects have been identified and catalogued so far, but experts think that there are a lot more out there yet to be discovered, and at least one of them will be chosen to be given a closer inspection.
The Hubble Space Telescope has found two small ice covered worlds in the midst of the Kuiper Belt on the edge of our solar system, an estimated 4 billion miles away from Earth.
This discovery has led scientists to look for other objects in the Kuiper Belt that could be studied more closely by the New Horizons spacecraft probe after it’s done orbiting Pluto.
Icy objects left over from the formation of our solar system an estimated four and a half billion years ago make up the Kuiper Belt, which was first hypothesized in 1951, but wasn’t discovered until the early 1990’s.
John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C is quoted as saying: "Once again the Hubble Space Telescope has demonstrated the ability to explore the universe in new and unexpected ways. Hubble science is at its best when it works in concert with other NASA missions and ground-based observatories."
More than one thousand Kuiper Belt objects have been identified and catalogued so far, but experts think that there are a lot more out there yet to be discovered, and at least one of them will be chosen to be given a closer inspection.