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In 1951, the astronomer Gerard Kuiper suggested that there might be billions of small, icy objects just beyond the orbits of Neptune and Pluto. These objects would be spread out over so large a volume that they wouldn’t tend to collect to form actual planets, but would give a possible explanation as to why there are so many short-period comets. Since they tend to be of about magnitude 23, these objects were too dim to be detected until 1992. Since then, several hundred Kuiper belt, or “transneptunian objects” (TNOs) have been found.

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