Kuiper Belt

space · icy objects · dwarf planets · outer solar system

Frozen icy region. The Kuiper Belt is located beyond Neptune's orbit and contains mostly frozen objects made of methane, ammonia, and water ice, not rock and metal like asteroids closer to the Sun.

Enormous compared to asteroids. The Kuiper Belt is 20 times wider than the asteroid belt and contains 20 to 200 times more material, making it one of the largest structures in our Solar System.

Home to dwarf planets. Five dwarf planets live in the Kuiper Belt: Pluto, Makemake, Haumea, Quaoar, and Orcus, which are smaller than Earth's moon but still round enough to be called planets.

Solar System leftovers. The objects in the Kuiper Belt are the same building blocks left over from when our Solar System formed billions of years ago, giving us clues about how planets got their start.

Moon connection. Some of the Solar System's moons, like Neptune's Triton and Saturn's Phoebe, may have originally come from the Kuiper Belt before being captured by larger planets.