The New Horizons team is gaining more confidence in their potential detection of a second Kuiper Belt. It’s a very exciting discovery, it means our solar system is a whole lot bigger! However, there wasn’t new data involved with the increase in confidence, so I have to wonder if it’s not a *little* motivated by their recent budget only allowing one more year to search for a third flyby target…
Regardless of that reasoning however, the existence of an outer Kuiper Belt, beyond what was once considered its end, is tantalizing, and I feel the evidence shows promise! Who knows, maybe this is the year New Horizons finds itself a third target, and it will be a member of a region we didn’t even know existed when the little probe launched!
P.S. if you’re a follower you may be interested to know, but the Minor Planet Center verified just one more little moon of Saturn, a cherry on top bringing the count to 146 :)