Kuiper Belt Collision Found; Possible Comet Source

siglercm writes "Astronomers have detected the remnants of an ancient collision in the Kuiper Belt, the region of bodies found outside of our solar system. The massive impact between a nearly Pluto-sized body and one half as large created a 'collisional family' of objects; this is the first such family identified in the Kuiper Belt. The largest body produced may cross Neptune's orbit in the distant future, but it's possible that smaller objects created by the smash-up have already fallen into the inner solar system as comets."

Comments

So they found Kzanol's ship?

[R2.0]

I guess Larry Niven had it right.

Re:How many planets could there be?

[Tablizer]

How far from the Sun could we expect to keep finding planets? Has anyone come up with an 'Outer Limit' for holding an object in orbit?

If its too far out, then it is more likely to be disturbed by other stars besides the sun (current or past). In theory the orbital boundary of the sun is nearly infinite. In practice, our neighborhood stars muck up any outer orbits. For a non-geek analogy, it is sort of like having kids and living next store to Michael Jackson.

Re:Kuiper Crash

[stratjakt]

The snowballs come from the kuiper belt, they get dirty when they brush up against Uranus.

hee hee. Imagine how boring astronomy would be if they didn't name Uranus what they did?

Re:Kuiper Crash

[Stanistani]

"Sorry, Fry, But scientists renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke."

What's it called now?"

"Urectum."

Re:That would be really cool if we were to see...

[Anonymous Coward]

Crap, better buy Koolaid stock quick

Re:shaped like a M&M

[MadUndergrad]

It appears to have a thin crunchy shell of rock on the outside with a core composed primarily of rich dark matter.