Kuiper Belt definitions
editOn this page I intend to keep a list of the various definitions for the Kuiper Belt and Transneptunian region that I find in the literature. Please feel free to add to the list – most recent publications first.
Gladman, Marsden, VanLaerhoven, 2008, "Nomenclature in the Outer Solar System", in the book "Solar System Beyond Neptune":
The term transneptunian region and the Kuiper belt become the same and the transneptunian region becomes defined as the union of the classical belt, SDO/detached populations and the resonant objects exterior to the Neptune trojans.
They also define comets and the Oort cloud as being separate from this region and SD being the scattering disk rather than scattered disk to make the point that we are defining the objects by their current orbital properties rather than their past history.
Delsanti and Jewitt, 2006, "The Solar System Beyond the Planets", in the book "Solar System Update" (pdf):
They define the sub-groups of the Kuiper belt as:
- Resonant objects
- Classical Kuiper belt
- Scattered objects
- Detached objects
The Minor Planet Center distinguishes between "Trans-Neptunian objects" (classical and resonant KBOs) and Scattered objects (SDOs and Centaurs) [1]
Alessandro Morbidelli and Harold F Levison in Kuiper Belt Dynamics Chapter 32 of the Encyclopedia of the Solar System (2007) state that "The Kuiper Belt is generically referred to as a population of small bodies the majority of which have a semi-major axis, and thus an orbital period, larger than those of Neptune." However, later in the same text, the authors say that, "The existence of the Scattered Disc suggests that we should reserve the name "Kuiper Belt" for the population of objects that do not suffer encounters with Neptune and therefore have orbits that either do not significantly change with time or do so very slowly."
Charnoz and Morbidelli, 2007, "Coupling dynamical and collisional evolution of small bodies 2: Forming the Kuiper Belt, the Scattered Disk and the Oort Cloud" ADS describe Eris as being part of the Kuiper belt in a footnote in the introduction but when describing their own model, they define the scattered disc as being separate to the Kuiper belt.
Benavidez and Campo Bagatin, 2009, "Collisional evolution of Trans-Neptunian populations: Effects of fragmentation physics and estimates of the abundances of gravitational aggregates" (ADS):
They define the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt as being split into at least three populations: reonant objects, the classical belt and the scattered disk. They use Trans-Neptunian region and EKB interchangeably.
Weissman and Johnson, 2007, Encyclopedia of the solar system
Note, p. 584: "There are two meanings of the phrase "Kuiper Belt" in the literature. There is the one employed above [stable objects vs SD]. In addition, some researchers use the phrase to describe the entire trans-Neptunian region. In this case the term "classical Kuiper Belt" is used to distinguish the stable regions."
They go on to say they prefer the former, but in practice they're inconsistent.
Comments
editThe naming of the MPC tables is unintelligible. The SDOs are obviously TNOs, so it would seem that they place a subset of TNOs in with Centaurs. Presumably the list was originally Centaurs vs TNOs. Without anything explicit, reading into this a distinction between SDOs and KBOs is OR.
Found an account by Weissman and Johnson of the two uses of the term. — kwami (talk) 22:45, 10 September 2011 (UTC)