Answer:
The Kuiper Belt is made up of a slew of planets orbiting the Sun at a range of 30 to 50 AU - that is, beyond Neptune's orbit. Pluto's orbit is part of the Kuiper Belt, and it has a unique interaction with Neptune's: Pluto orbits the Sun twice for every three Neptune orbits.
Step-by-step explanation:
Background of the Kuiper Belt and Pluto:
Kuiper Belt:
The Kuiper belt is named after Gerard Kuiper, a Dutch scientist who, in 1951, first speculated about objects in our solar system beyond Pluto. The Kuiper Belt begins at Neptune's orbit, about 30 AU from the Sun. This region extends to about 50 AU from the Sun. While it's on the same plane as much of our solar system, the Kuiper is more inflated than the rest of the disc. It is often described as having the shape of a donut or inner tube, Why? Because the objects travel on titled orbits. They occupy a space that goes above and below the disc that is our main solar system.
What is the Kuiper Belt?
The Kuiper Belt is a volume of space found beyond Neptune. Scientist believe there are hundreds of thousands of objects in the Kuiper Belt. So far, 2,000 of the objects have been tracked and recorded. While that number is impressive, the objects combined are believed to less than 10 percent of Earth's mass.
The objects in the Kuiper Belt are made up of different types of ices (from water, methane, ammonia) and rock. Much of this matter is believed to be left over from the formation of the solar system. Scientists believe that Neptune's gravity is responsible for these objects having never formed a planet, just like Jupiter's gravity is responsible for the asteroid belt having never formed a planet. There are three notable bodies in the Kuiper Belt region: Pluto, Haumea, and Makemake. These are three of the five dwarf planets in our solar system.
Pluto:
- Planetary Data
(By the numbers)
Diameter:
Distance from Sun:
Known Moons:
Length of Day:
Length of Year:
Average Temperature:
Description:
Pluto was once the ninth planet of our solar system. In 2006, it was demoted by the IAU to the status of dwarf planet. In July 2015, the New Horizons space probe sent the first up-close photographs of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, back to Earth.
Historically Speaking:
Pluto was discovered in 1930 and initially classified as a planet. It was named by and 11-year-old girl named Venetia Burney, the granddaughter of its discoverer, Clyde Tombaugh. She suggested the name Pluto after the Roman god of the underworld. In Roman mythology, the underworld is where souls go after a person dies. This seemed fitting as Pluto was extremely distant and cold. Pluto's moons are also named after characters from the underworld.
Features:
Because Pluto is so far from the sun, it's very cold. The average temperature there is between -350 degrees and -400 degrees Fahrenheit. Pluto is made mostly of rock, but it also has ice, just like other KBOs. The ice is made of frozen water, nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide. Pluto has an eccentric orbit that's also on a tilt. Pluto comes as close as 30 AU from the Sun and travels out to almost 50 AU from the Sun. Pluto is sometimes even close to the Sun than Neptune. When Pluto travels closer to the Sun, some of the ice on its surface turns into gas. This makes Pluto's thin atmosphere temporarily thicker. When it travels farther from the Sun, those gases turn back into ice. Pluto has no rings and is tilted on its side, like Uranus. Pluto has a retrograde rotation like Venus and Uranus. Unlike the surface of Mars, which is red because of the compound iron oxide, the red surface of Pluto is thought to be the result of a chemical reaction that occurs when sunlight interacts with its atmosphere.
How Big is Pluto?
Pluto is sometimes referred to as "the King of the Kuiper Belt." It is the largest object in the Kuiper Belt. Although Pluto is the largest KBO, it's smaller than all the planets. In fact, it's even smaller than our Moon. If could hold Pluto up to Earth, it would be about half the width the of the United States.
So the answer the question, what is the relationship between Pluto and the Kuiper Belt is Pluto's orbit is within the Kuiper Belt and is the largest object in it.