The Kuiper belt is a circumstellar disc in the Solar System extending
beyond the orbit of Neptune, at 30 to 50 astronomical units from the
Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, but
far larger—20 times as wide and 20 to 200 times as massive. Like the
asteroid belt, it consists mainly of small bodies that are remnants from
the Solar System's formation. Although many asteroids are composed
primarily of rock and metal, most Kuiper belt objects are composed
largely of frozen volatiles such as methane, ammonia and water. The disc
was named after Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Kuiper, though he did
not actually predict its existence. Some of the Solar System's moons,
such as Neptune's Triton and Saturn's Phoebe, are thought to have
originated in the region. It is home to three officially recognized
dwarf planets: Haumea, Makemake, and Pluto, the largest and most massive
member of the Kuiper belt. Originally considered a planet, Pluto was
reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
907:
Zhu Wen forced Emperor Ai into abdicating, ending the Tang
dynasty after nearly three hundred years of rule.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Ai_of_Tang>
1881:
Under the threat of invasion, the Bey of Tunis Muhammad III as-
Sadiq signed the Treaty of Bardo to make Tunisia a French protectorate.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_conquest_of_Tunisia>
1942:
World War II: Soviet forces under Marshal Semyon Timoshenko
launched a major offensive in eastern Ukraine, only to be encircled and
destroyed by German troops two weeks later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Kharkov>
1967:
The Jimi Hendrix Experience released the critically-acclaimed
and widely influential debut album Are You Experienced.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Are_You_Experienced>
1982:
The Coppergate Helmet, the best preserved of the six known
Anglo-Saxon helmets, was discovered.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppergate_Helmet>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
bahuvrihi:
(linguistics, also attributive) A type of nominal compound in which the
first part modifies the second and neither part alone conveys the
intended meaning.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bahuvrihi>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It's often been observed that the first casualty of war is the
truth. But that's a lie, too, in its way. The reality is that, for most
wars to begin, the truth has to have been sacrificed a long time in
advance.
--L. Neil Smith
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/L._Neil_Smith>