Origin of the Structure of the Kuiper Belt during a Dynamical Instability in the Orbits of Uranus and Neptune

Understand

We explore the origin and orbital evolution of the Kuiper belt in the framework of a recent model of the dynamical evolution of the giant planets, sometimes known as the Nice model.

• This model is characterized by a short, but violent, instability phase, during which the planets were on large eccentricity orbits.
• One characteristic of this model is that the proto-planetary disk must have been truncated at roughly 30 to 35 AU so that Neptune would stop migrating at its currently observed location.
• As a result, the Kuiper belt would have initially been empty.