柯伊伯带结构形成动力学

Dynamics of the Formation of the Kuiper Belt

柯伊伯带是指位于海王星轨道外的小天体构成的盘状区域。一般认为柯伊伯带小天体是早期太阳系物质凝聚成各大行星后的残留物,因此这些小天体能够为研究外太阳系的形成与演化提供很多重要的线索。该文首先介绍了柯伊伯带的发现历史及它的主要观测特征,然后回顾了近年来提出的形成这些特征的机制,最后讨论了柯伊伯带中有待解释的主要问题。

As early as the middle of 20th century, Edgeworth and Kuiper independently conjectured the existence of a disk of small objects that orbit the Sun beyond Neptune-the presently called Kuiper Belt. With the discovery of the first member of the Kuiper Belt Objects （KBOs hereafter） 1992 QB1 by Jewitt and Luu in 1992, the Kuiper Belt was transformed from the theoretical conjecture to a bona fide component of our Solar system. By now, more than 1200 KBOs have been observed. Since these objects are thought to be the remnants after the planets had accreted most of their masses, they may provide us with many clues to the formation and primordial evolution of the outer Solar system. Here, the paper aims to give an overview of the recent progress in the study of the Kuiper Belt. In section 2, the history of the Kuiper Belt is briefly introduced. In section 3, the main observed properties of the Kuiper Belt are presented. In section 4, the mechanisms that have been proposed so far on the origin of the belt is reviewed. In section 5, some outstanding problems that need to be explained in detail are discussed.