Major Discovery of Second Ring of Kuiper Belt Objects at Three Times Further Than Neptune

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Survey observations using the Subaru Telescope’s ultra-widefield prime focus camera have revealed that there may be a population of small bodies further out in the Kuiper Belt waiting to be discovered. The results, which are important for understanding the formation of the Solar System, were obtained through an international collaboration between the Subaru Telescope and the New Horizons spacecraft traveling through the outer Solar System.

There may be a new population of Kuiper Belt objects at 70-90 au. “If this is confirmed, it would be a major discovery. The primordial solar nebula was much larger than previously thought, and this may have implications for studying the planet formation process in our Solar System,” says Dr. Yoshida.

This would mean our solar system is more similar to others that have a very large asteroid belt like ring further out. If our solar system is more similar to other solar systems that means those arguing that our solar system is special are wrong. Our solar system being less special means there is fewer reasons for not finding life elsewhere.

The New Horizons Extended Mission Target: Arrokoth Search and Discovery, Sept 11, 2024 paper and Arxiv The New Horizons Extended Mission Target: Arrokoth Search and Discovery.

In 2020, deeper observations began with Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) on the Subaru Telescope, and by 2023, there had been 239 Kuiper Belt objects discovered (for more information, see (2) Fraser et al. 2024).

“The most exciting part of the HSC observations was the discovery of 11 objects at distances beyond the known Kuiper Belt,” says team member Dr. Fumi Yoshida (University of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences; Planetary Exploration Research Center, Chiba Institute of Technology).

Many of the objects discovered with HSC are located at distances of 30-55 astronomical units (au) from the Sun (1 au corresponds to the distance between the Sun and Earth) and are thought to be within the known Kuiper Belt. On the other hand, the team was not expecting what appears to be a cluster of objects in the 70-90 au region and a valley between 55 au and 70 au (

6 thoughts on “Major Discovery of Second Ring of Kuiper Belt Objects at Three Times Further Than Neptune”

  2. If we don’t end up colonizing the galaxy by launching interstellar craft, we might still eventually do it by colonizing bodies further and further from the Sun until eventually we find we’re actually colonizing bodies orbiting another star. The diffusion model of interstellar colonization.

    I’ve long thought that the Kuiper belt is going to be very attractive for colonization once we finally get going properly in space. All the needed volatiles, and far enough from the center of Solar civilization for people to engage in all sorts of social and biological experimentation.

    A major driver of North American colonization, early on, was people wanting just that: A chance for groups to try out something different that they couldn’t get away with at home.

    Similarly, once we have the tech to properly live in space, the gas giants’ moons and the Kuiper belt will look very attractive for social and political outliers looking for a chance to do their own thing without interference.

    And then somebody who’s colonized one of those bodies is going to fire up a rocket, and interstellar colonization begins. Because the difference between a distant colony on a Kuiper belt object, and a generation ship, is just that the latter is actually going someplace.

    • The Oort Cloud estimates range widely, but as much as 1.5 light years out from the sun. This is 1/3 of the way to alpha centuri. Assuming it has its own Oort Cloud equivalent, the idea of an interstellar highway hopscotching across these ice bodies is possible. No one person or ship would need to make the entire journey.

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