Researched
Kuiper Belt & Dwarf Planets
In 1992 Jewitt and Luu found the first object beyond Neptune other than Pluto; Eris (2005) and the 2006 planet definition made Pluto one of several dwarf planets.
Open in the interactive tree →Kenneth Edgeworth (1943) and Gerard Kuiper (1951) had suggested a disc of small bodies beyond Neptune. David Jewitt and Jane Luu found 1992 QB1, now 15760 Albion, in CCD images from the University of Hawaii's 2.2-metre telescope on Mauna Kea. Eris, announced on 29 July 2005 and about 27% more massive than Pluto, led the IAU to define a planet on 24 August 2006 and to place Pluto, Eris and Ceres among the dwarf planets. By 2018 more than 2,000 Kuiper belt objects were known; New Horizons flew past Pluto on 14 July 2015 and Arrokoth on 1 January 2019.
Prerequisites
- Discovery of Neptune1846Neptune's discovery raised the question of what else orbits beyond it.
- CCD Image Sensor1969CCD cameras could see the faint, slow objects that photographic plates missed.