Friday, August 25, 2006

Trans-Neptunian objects

Trans-Neptunian objects:

Any object in the solar system that orbits the sun at a greater distance on average than Neptune is said to be as trans-Neptunian object. There are three divisions of volume of space they are Kuiper belt, scattered disk, and Oort. The gravitational force of other planets influences the orbit of each other planet. . Difference in the early 1900s between the observed and expected orbits of the known planets suggested that there were one or more additional planets beyond Neptune. The search for these led to the discovery of Pluto. Pluto is too small to explain the discrepancies, however, and revised estimates of Neptune's mass showed that the problem was spurious.