There May Be A Second Kuiper Belt, And New Horizons Is Headed There

In a meeting today of the NASA New Horizons Science Team, a presentation strongly suggests that our solar system actually has a second Kuiper Belt. And the New Horizons spacecraft will be visiting it in a few years.

The presentation was made by co-investigator Wes Fraser from the Herzberg Astrophysics Institute in Canada. The above chart, shared during the presentation, shows data from ground-based observations. This data suggests that there are potentially many Kuiper Belt objects that might just be targets for another New Horizons Flyby.

In the chart above, the black dot on the horizontal axis is the current position of New Horizons, which is currently between the two belts. The orbits of objects to the right of New Horizons are the Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) in the suspected second belt. New Horizons will be in the region of the second belt in the late 2020s or early 2030s.

More to follow.