Kuiper Belt
The name Kuiper Belt refers to a population of objects located beyond Neptune. Well before the first discoveries of its actual bodies, the existence of the Kuiper Belt had been predicted from theoretical considerations and deduced from the analysis of the orbits of short-period comets. The observations, however, have revealed that the Kuiper Belt has a structure much more complex than originally envisioned. The Kuiper Belt is made of several sub-populations, with distinct orbital distributions. Intriguingly, some of these sub-populations also have distinct physical properties, suggesting that they formed in different environments. How the Kuiper Belt acquired its current structure is an active topic of research. The properties of the Kuiper Belt provide a rich set of clues that help scientists reconstruct the primordial evolution of the outer Solar System.