--- title: "Scientists Find Evidence for Large Unknown Objects in Distant Solar System" description: "The potential detection of objects lying beyond the Kuiper Belt's limits may upend our understanding of what encircles our solar system." date: "2023-10-08" modified: "2023-10-08" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/second-kuiper-belt-puzzling-objects" categories: - "Energy" - "Off-World" - "Renewable Energy" - "Science & Energy" - "Solar Power" - "Space" tags: - "Kuiper Belt" - "solar system" - "the digest" --- # Scientists Find Evidence for Large Unknown Objects in Distant Solar System ![The potential detection of objects lying beyond the Kuiper Belt's limits may upend our understanding of what encircles our solar system.]() *A view from the surface of a large Kuiper Belt Object. \Image: Ron Miller via Getty Images\* ## Redefining Limits There may be more than meets the eye with The Kuiper Belt, a ring comprising thousands of large, icy objects and dwarf planets that encircle our solar system. A yet-to-be-published study, [spotlighted by *Science*](), found evidence of a dozen large objects lying past the belt's outermost perimeter, suggesting that the belt is much deeper than once thought. Scientists currently believe that the Kuiper Belt's limits lie approximately 50 astronomical units (AU) — each unit equaling the distance between the Earth and the Sun — from the solar system's center. Yet by the researcher's estimates, which they stress are preliminary, the "puzzling" objects could be lurking beyond even 60 AU. That's a discrepancy of at least ten AU — an astounding distance, equal to that between the Sun and Saturn. But there could be another explanation: that there's actually a "second" belt, residing beyond the Kuiper, in this little-understood and underexplored region of our distant solar system. ## Old Probe, New Tricks Sensors aboard NASA's New Horizons spacecraft led to the discovery. Launched in 2006, the probe was the first to get an up-close look at Pluto, a resident of the Kuiper Belt, and serves as astronomers' eyes at the edge of the solar system. Now at 57 AU from the Sun, New Horizons is supposed to have the Kuiper Belt in its rear-view mirror. But its sensors keep detecting dust, an indicator of collisions between objects nearby. "The number of impacts is not declining," Alan Stern, principal investigator of the New Horizons mission and a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, told *Science*. "And the simplest explanation for that is that there is more stuff out there that we haven't detected." That clued the astronomers in. Using New Horizons' trajectory, they were then able to narrow down a search area for potential unseen Kuiper Belt objects in hundreds of combined images of the night sky taken by Japan's Subaru Telescope. And they found twelve of them — or so it appears. ## Sight Unseen Still, the results are far from conclusive, and so far, telescopes that have surveyed other parts of the outer solar system have discovered almost nothing beyond the Kuiper Belt's limits. "Why are we not seeing these things?" Pedro Bernardinelli, an astronomer at the University of Washington who was not involved in the research, told *Science*. "Did everyone get unlucky? It's possible, but it's hard." But the hypothesis isn't a shot in the dark, either. According to Hilke Sclichting, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Hubble Space Telescope detected dimming in stars that could have been caused by undiscovered Kuiper Belt objects passing in front of them. "Is there a larger population beyond 60 AU? There could be," Schlichting told *Science*. "Maybe that's what we're seeing. I'm not sure." **More on space:** *[James Webb Spots Numerous Pairs of Planets, Hanging Out With No Stars]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()