HST trouble could stall Kuiper Belt study

The scientific shutdown of the Hubble Space Telescope will hold up a number of scheduled observations.

Among those that might be impacted is a study of binaries stars in the Kuiper Belt, the region just beyond the edge of our solar system. Observations with the telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 are expected to shed light on the formation and evolution of the solar system.

NASA Hubble status reports outline the observations:

"The discovery of binaries in the Kuiper Belt and related small body populations is powering a revolutionary step forward in the study of this remote region," a report released over the weekend says.

"Three quarters of the known binaries in the Kuiper Belt have been discovered with HST, most by our snapshot surveys. The statistics derived from this work are beginning to yield surprising and unexpected results,:" it adds.

"We have found a strong concentration of binaries among low-inclination Classicals, a possible size cutoff to binaries among the Centaurs, an apparent preference for nearly equal mass binaries, and a strong increase in the number of binaries at small separations. We propose to continue this successful program in Cycle 16; we expect to discover at least 13 new binary systems, targeted to subgroups where these discoveries can have the greatest impact."