Kuiper belt

From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science

NASA diagram shows the presumed distance of the Oort cloud compared to the solar system planets, the Kuiper belt, and the Sedna planetoid.

The Kuiper belt refers to a group of objects that orbit the sun from just inside Neptune's orbit (about 30 AU) out to 50 AU. The International Astronomical Union refers to them as trans-Neptunian objects. (TNO) The name "Kuiper belt" is for Gerard Kuiper, who first suggested that such a belt of objects could be source of short-period comets. However trans-Neptunian object is the preferred name, since the name "Kuiper belt" and other suggested names are somewhat controversial.

1 The Theory
2 Reality
3 Conclusion
4 Related References:
5 See Also:

The Theory

It is believed that that this group of bodies serves as a source for short period comets. This is an attempt to explain how short-period comets could still exist after 4.5 billion years, given the fact that they can't last more than 10,000 years. According to the theory, these TNO's should be comet-like bodies, in size and composition.

Reality

In reality, these TNO's are nothing like comets in either size or composition. All of these bodies are larger than comets; in fact large enough to be round, while comet nuclei, like asteroids, are small and irregular in shape. Furthermore, their composition is more like Pluto than a comet. In fact Pluto is most likely one of these bodies rather than a major planet, and in 2006 was reclassified as a dwarf planet by the astronomical community.

Furthermore, observations show that there is only 4% of the expected amount of TNO's by the predictions of the Kuiper Belt theory. Click here for more information on this observation.

Conclusion

While these bodies do exist, they are not the cometary bodies they are alleged to be. Thus they are not a source for short-period comets. While the argument could be made that we simply can't see the smaller comet-like bodies, the fact still remains that there is no evidence that they exists. Furthermore, there would have to be at least a billion comet nuclei in this so called "Kuiper belt" to qualify as a source for short-period comets, and at present there is no evidence for such a large number of bodies, and all known bodies are too large to be comet nuclei.

Given the real nature of the bodies, the use of therm "Kuiper belt" is actually deceptive since that TNO's that have been observed do not match theory. It is a prime example of evolutionary interpretations being applied to observation even when the labels are not objectively justified.

Thus while the so called "Kuiper belt" is claimed as a source of short-period comets, it fails to agree what the theory predicted.