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Letters to Nature

Nature 426, 419-421 (27 November 2003) | doi:10.1038/nature02120; Received 19 April 2003; Accepted 14 October 2003

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The formation of the Kuiper belt by the outward transport of bodies during Neptune's migration

Harold F. Levison1,2 & Alessandro Morbidelli2

  1. Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado 80302, USA
  2. Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, 06304 Nice Cedex 4, France

Correspondence to: Harold F. Levison1,2 Email: hal@boulder.swri.edu

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The 'dynamically cold Kuiper belt' consists of objects on low-inclination orbits between approx40 and approx50 au from the Sun. It currently contains material totalling less than a tenth the mass of the Earth1, 2, which is surprisingly low because, according to accretion models3, 4, the objects would not have grown to their present size unless the cold Kuiper belt originally contained tens of Earth masses of solids. Although several mechanisms have been proposed to produce the observed mass depletion, they all have significant limitations5. Here we show that the objects currently observed in the dynamically cold Kuiper belt were most probably formed within approx35 au and were subsequently pushed outward by Neptune's 1:2 mean motion resonance during its final phase of migration. Combining our mechanism with previous work6, 7, we conclude that the entire Kuiper belt formed closer to the Sun and was transported outward during the final stages of planet formation.

  1. Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado 80302, USA
  2. Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, 06304 Nice Cedex 4, France

Correspondence to: Harold F. Levison1,2 Email: hal@boulder.swri.edu