Thread: kuiper belt no planet

Are there any theories as to what stopped the kuiper belt from clumping together into a planet.
If it had it may have been called pluto and we would still have a nine planet system well if you include sedna then it would be a ten planet system

material spread too thinly ?

Perhaps it had something to do with Jupiter ?

isn't jupiter rather far away from the kuiper belt to have much influence ?

Perhaps Orbital Velocities might also have something to do with it, along with as before stated, the distance between objects out there.

Jupiter effected the Asteroid Belt between Mars and itself, but not really the Kupier Belt which is out past Neptune.

When matter that far out *does* clump, I'm sure the net velocity of the new clump is lower (or at least different) than the separate parts that formed it were. I mean, the collision would change it's velocity.

I imagine the new clumps fall inward toward the rest of the solar system, and eventually hit the existing planets, but who knows?

Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt objects have moderately inclined orbits, some of which are Neptune crossing, and a disproportionate number of which are in a 3:2 orbital resonance with Neptune.

There are estimated to be around 80,000 objects of less than 100 km in diameter within the belt, which stretches from around 30 to 50 A.U. It is thought that the majority of these bodies were ejected from the region of the outer planets during their formation. Migration of the outward planets during this phase would have contributed to this process.

It has been postulated that a stronger magentic field present in the outermost part of the accretionary disc may also have inhibited planetesimal formation.

Originally Posted by marnixR

isn't jupiter rather far away from the kuiper belt to have much influence ?

Originally Posted by musicalaviator

Jupiter effected the Asteroid Belt between Mars and itself, but not really the Kupier Belt which is out past Neptune.

Ahhh yes, sorry, wrong asteroid belt.

I'm going back down to the 'trash can' where i belong........

Originally Posted by marnixR

isn't jupiter rather far away from the kuiper belt to have much influence ?

On the contrary, the contents of the Kuiper belt were emplaced (by and large) by ejection by Jupiter and the other giant planets from the inner part of the solar system. The same is true of the Oort cloud.

i know that the current consensus is that at least some kuiper + oort objects have been ejected from the inner solar system, mainly under the influence of jupiter

i was talking about jupiter not having much influence once they find themselves in the kuiper belt or beyond - imo kuiper objects probably reached more or less the size they're now in the inner solar system and haven't accrued much mass after ejection

Originally Posted by marnixR

i know that the current consensus is that at least some kuiper + oort objects have been ejected from the inner solar system, mainly under the influence of jupiter

My reading of the research is that it is the majority of the objects.

Originally Posted by marnixR

ii was talking about jupiter not having much influence once they find themselves in the kuiper belt or beyond - imo kuiper objects probably reached more or less the size they're now in the inner solar system and haven't accrued much mass after ejection

I agree. Neptune has the principal influence on Kuiper belts objects, which is why a substantial proportion of them - theplutinos - have a 3:2 orbital resonance with Neptune. Nevertheless it requires only a small perturbation to render some orbits unstable, and in this way Jupiter may occassionaly 'dislodge' one of these into the inner solar system, where we will observe it as a short period comet.