It's been a long journey, 64 episodes, but now we're back where we began: Pluto. Last time we talked about how Pluto lost its planethood status, so we won't go over all that again. This time we're going to talk about Pluto, its moons, the Kuiper belt, and the other icy objects that inhabit the outer Solar System.

<strong><a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomycast/AstroCast-071126.mp3">Episode 64: Pluto and the Icy Outer Solar System (12.6MB)</a></strong><br />&nbsp;<br /><br />&nbsp;<br />

Read the full blog entry

I think I have found a slight error in the transcript

Near the end we have

The bit in italics should be Galaxy?

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Van Rijn's original Invisible Elf was running for the North Carolina Senate, but dropped out of the contest after the paparazzi snapped him with a cute pixie just outside Disney World in Florida. Now he has settled down with her as they await their first child, writing his biography of life in Van Rijn's backyard, - Now you prove me wrong

Thanks Sticks. I fixed it.

-Rebecca

Pam and Fraser glossed over one of the things I was looking forward to learning in this episode. Specifically, what is the difference between the Ort Cloud and the Kuiper Belt?

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,


TTL

Well we know the Kuiper Belt is there, but the Oort cloud is just a postulated area where the really long term comets and other icy object reside.

It does get a little complex past Neptune with the Kuiper Belt, the Scattered disc, and the Oort cloud.

Right, the Oort cloud is just theoretical. That's where the long period comets seem to come from. I would assume that they're physically similar to Kuiper belt objects, since the long period comets are similar to other comets. The differences would probably be very interesting to astronomers, though.

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Fraser Cain
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