Kuiper Belt: the Final (Solar) Frontier

Marc W. Buie, Lowell Observatory
Cindy Weehler, KPNO/NOAO RET

Classroom Connection

The Earth as a Peppercorn
This activity describes a very visual and kinesthetic way to show students the scale of the solar system. you can easily adapt this model to include the Asteroid belt, Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud.
http://www.noao.edu/education/peppercorn/pcmain.html

Make Your Own Comet
The Kuiper Belt is now thought to be the "nursery" for short period comets, like Halley, Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake. In this activity you and your students can make a model comet, constructed from easy to find materials.
http://www.noao.edu/education/crecipe.html

The Motion of Comet Hyakutake
Hyakutake was one of the most spectacular comets of the last millenium. In this activity students use free image processing software to analyze the motion of this comet using images taken just minutes apart.
http://www.noao.edu/education/hipt.html

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