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