synonymKuiper (Kuiper) Generally refers to Gerard Kuiper
1951, Dutch AmericanastronomerGerard Kuiper first proposed a hypothesis.In his opinionNeptuneThere may be a banded area outside the orbit, where there is acometA large number of icy comets are distributed in belts.Its outer edge extends to about 50 astronomical units, and those comets circle the sunrevolutionAnd constantly entersolar systemInside.Kuiper also believes that,PlutoPerhaps it is just the brightest one among a large group of objects running in that area. There are other objects there. Like Pluto, they appeared when the solar system was formed, but they are dark and small, so they have not yet been discovered by humans.[1]
Gerard Kuiper (December 7, 1905 December 23, 1973),
Dutch Americanastronomer, birth educationNetherlandsHe came to the United States in 1933 and became an American citizen in 1937. He is a modern planetastronomyFather, his colleagues andstudentThey all nicknamed him "GPK".
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Gerard Kuiper
In the 1940s, Gerard Kuiper put forward a new theory thatPlutoIt is not a world without a thread to find, but the brightest one among a large group of objects running in a "region".Later, people called the "region" mentioned in Kuiper's theory as“Kuiper belt”（Kuiper Belt）。
In 1965, he made an infrared observation using NASA's Convair 990 aircraft, detected the composition of Venus's atmosphere, and showed thatAirborne observatoryHas great potential.In 1968, Frank Low used a LearJet under NASA's Ames CenteraircraftCarrying a 12 inch calibertelescopeThe infrared brightness of Jupiter and Milky Way nebula has been measured successfully.These tests left a deep impression on NASA scientists, and eventually led to the Kuiper AirborneobservatoryThe birth of.
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Gerard Kuiper
Astronomer Gerald Kuiper, who first proposed in 1951 that NeptunetrackOutside, there may be a belt area in which ice material runs.He thinks that's the only way to explainShort period cometThe mystery of the source of the comet: every time a comet passes the sun, it will inevitably volatilize a lot of surface matter. Short period comets only have a period of a few years. Their frequent passing near the sun will inevitably result in their life span not exceeding several hundred thousand years. Compared with the life span of the solar system of billions of years, this is only a short moment. Therefore, if there were such comets in the past,They should have evaporated long ago, but they are still discovering new short cyclescomet。This constitutes an inexplicable mystery of short period comets.Koiper's explanation is that there is a large amount of dark comet matter moving around the sun in the region where Pluto runssolar systemIt appeared at the beginning of formation. According to Kuiper's calculation, the original particles outside the orbit of Neptune are difficult to bond to form a large enough planet, but many small bodies have formed.These small bodies occasionally break away from their normal orbits and enter the inner solar system under the action of external forces, forming short period comets.
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Kuiper Belt Pluto
2001September 13: billions of kilometers away from the earth, far beyond the orbit of Neptune, is a cold and dark desolate area.The bright and warm sun on the earth is only the brightest star in the sky.The temperature in this area is so low thatNine planetsThe atmosphere of Pluto, the only planet in this region, is often frozen.
Observing these from the earthPlutoOur friends look like dark comets.It is difficult to know exactly what they are composed of, because they are covered by a layer of sticky things, which may be a mixture of ice, rock and dust.Most of these objects are about the same size as the asteroids between Jupiter and Mars, with diameters ranging from a few kilometers to hundreds of kilometers, and a few others have reached the scalePluto(2274km in diameter), it is possible that some day an object as large as Pluto will be discovered.
Gerard Kuiper
Discovered 1992QB1 celestial body
Astronomers call this kind of celestial bodyKuiper Belt Objects(KBO object Kuiper Belt Objects) Since the 1930s, some scientists have predicted that there is a region outside Neptune, which contains a large number of small objects.In the 1950s, American astronomer Gerard Koiper proposed that this region was the source of short period comets.In 1992, Dave Jewitt and Jane Luu, two astronomers who did not believe that the outer solar system was completely empty, discovered the first such object.from1987At the beginning, they searched the sky for objects outside the orbit of Neptune. After five years of using the 2.2 meter telescope of the University of Hawaii, they finally found a red object 44 astronomical units away from the sun, which is even farther than Pluto.Its standard name in the catalog is 1992 QB1.
1992 QB1。It is 250km in diameter, 41~48 astronomical units away from the sunPlutoIt's still far away.This finding confirms that:NeptunePluto is not the only large object outside its orbit.Astronomers have realized that the Kuiper Belt may not only be a hypothesis, it may actually exist.Soon, people found more and more such objects between the orbit of Neptune and 50 astronomical units away from the sun. By July 1999, the number of these objects had exceeded 170, reaching more than 400 in 2001, and more than 800 in 2005.But these are just the tip of the iceberg,scientistAround 2001, it was estimated that there might be 70000 celestial bodies in the Kuiper Belt with a diameter of more than 100km. If their masses were added together, they could form a mass of 1/10 of the Earth'sMegaplanets。However, it is estimated thatcelestial bodiesThere are as many as billions of objects, of which there are no less than 35000 objects with a diameter of more than 100km.These objects found in the Kuiper Belt are commonly referred to as Kuiper Belt objects, or KBO for short.
From Earth observation, it is difficult to know exactly what KBO is made of. They are covered by a layer of sticky things, much like icerockAnd dust.Some KBOs are not small, and their size is close to Pluto or even exceeds Pluto.
In November 2000, Juyt and his colleagues found another 43Astronomical unitVaruna, with a diameter of 900km, is close to the largest asteroid Ceres (933km in diameter), only slightly smaller than Charon (1200km in diameter).At that time, some scientists thought that Varuna's discovery confirmed the view of Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto, to some extent.After Clyde discovered Pluto, he thought that there were other Planet X in this region for discovery.Northern Arizona University Stephen Tagler of the University of California said: "The discovery of Varuna shows that Pluto is not the only Planet X, maybe it is just one of several Planet X. It is conceivable that PlutoPlutoThe farther and larger objects have not yet been discovered, probably because the sun's light is too weak or their surfaces are too dark. "
Gerard Kuiper
Tygler was right. On August 24, 2001, people made another major discovery. It was called 2001 KX76. It was discovered by the "deep ecliptic search program" supported by NASA. Its size is about 1200km. Many reports said that it replaced Ceres as the largest asteroid, but in fact, 2001 KX76 is 39 astronomical units away from the sun, not belonging toasteroid, but a KBO.
The Kuiper Airborne Observatory is an AmericanNASAOur infrared observation equipment is based at Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.It is a C-141A "Transport Star" jet transport aircraftReflecting telescope, which is complementary to the large area rapid sky survey of the exploration balloon, and is dedicated to the precise observation of celestial bodies.To overcome the earthatmosphereThe absorption of infrared ray by water vapor in the air is observed only when the Kuiper Airborne Observatory flies above the stratosphere, where the air is thin,steamInfrared absorption is almost zero.From its service in the spring of 1974 to its retirement in the autumn of 1995, it worked for 21 years and flew more than 1400 times in total.
historical background
Airborne observatoryconceptIt is attributed to scientists such as Frank Low who finally put scientific instruments into high altitude.Due to the inconvenience of ground-based infrared observation and the limitations of the conditions at that time, it was quite difficult to launch a detection satellite. People found a solution: if the instrument could be sent to the stratosphere, it could greatly reduce the absorption of infrared caused by water vapor, because 98% of the water vapor on the earth was distributed introposphere。
The telescope system of the Kuiper Airborne Observatory is composed ofOwens IllinoisThe C-141A of Lockheed Martin is selected as the carrierStrategic transport aircraftIts maximum flight height is about 14000 meters, and its no-load endurance exceeds 10000 kilometers.This is also the only civilian C-141A aircraft in the world.In 1973, Lockheed installed the telescope cabin of the airborne observatory.In 1974, the airborne observatory was put into use.On May 21, 1975, Gerard Kuiper Airborne Observatory was officially named, two years after Kuiper's death.
Gerard Kuiper
Flight equipment -- The purpose of setting up the Kuiper Airborne Observatory is to overcome the impact of water vapor in the Earth's atmosphereinfraredAbsorption, better infrared astronomical observation, its working spectrum range is arranged in 1 to 500 microns.Telescopicoptical system The traditional Cassegrain design is adopted, with a diameter of 36 inches (91.5 cm).telescopeIt is installed on the left upper part of the fuselage, beside the cockpit of the pilot.And generalInfrared telescopeSimilarly, it is also equipped with a cooling system, which uses liquid nitrogen or other cryogenic liquids to ensure that the heat of the telescope itself will not affect the observation.detectorIt can be disassembled. Before each flight, astronomers install and test different detectors according to their own needs.telescopeThe secondary mirror is oscillating and can move back and forth to change the observation field of view.This is designed to facilitate the elimination of image noise.
