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H. F. Levison (Southwest Research Institute)
A little over 10 years ago, our perception of the Solar System changed drastically with the discovery of the first Kuiper belt object. As the number of known objects increased (it is now well over 500), a picture has emerged which shows a Kuiper belt with two major components: a cold population --made of objects on orbits with inclination i<~4deg -- and a hot population --whose inclinations can be as large as 30deg, and possibly larger. These populations have also been found to have different physical properties. In addition, there is a small population (roughly 10%) of objects trapped in mean motion resonances with Neptune. All of these populations are confined to have semi-major axes within ~50AU from the Sun, where the whole Kuiper belt seems to have an abrupt end, even if observational biases are accounted for. In addition, the trans-Neptunian region is the home of the 'scattered disk', which consists of objects with very large semi-major axes, but with perihelia typically less than 40AU. The complex structure in the trans-neptunian region is the result of the early dynamical evolution of the planets and thus it may be possible to put strong constraints on the formation of the planets by evolution of the planets and thus it may be possible to put strong constraints on the formation of the planets by studying it. Indeed, just within the last few months a picture has emerged about the late stages of solar system formation that explains much of the Kuiper belt's structure. I will review this picture in this talk.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #4
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.