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The scattered disc (or scattered disk) is a distant circumstellar disc in the Solar System that is sparsely populated by icy minor planets, a subset of the broader family of trans-Neptunian objects. The scattered-disc objects (SDOs) have orbital eccentricities ranging as high as 0.8, inclinations as high as 40°, and perihelia greater than . These extreme orbits are thought to be the result of gravitational "scattering" by the gas giants, and the objects continue to be subject to perturbation by the planet Neptune. Although the closest scattered-disc objects approach the Sun at about 30–35 AU, their orbits can extend well beyond 100 AU. This makes scattered objects among the most distant and coldest objects in the Solar System.〔Maggie Masetti. (2007). ''(Cosmic Distance Scales – The Solar System )''. Website of NASA's High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center. Retrieved 2008 07-12.〕 The innermost portion of the scattered disc overlaps with a torus-shaped region of orbiting objects traditionally called the Kuiper belt,〔 but its outer limits reach much farther away from the Sun and farther above and below the ecliptic than the Kuiper belt proper. Because of its unstable nature, astronomers now consider the scattered disc to be the place of origin for most periodic comets in the Solar System, with the centaurs, a population of icy bodies between Jupiter and Neptune, being the intermediate stage in an object's migration from the disc to the inner Solar System. Eventually, perturbations from the giant planets send such objects towards the Sun, transforming them into periodic comets. Many Oort cloud objects are also thought to have originated in the scattered disc. Detached objects are not sharply distinct from scattered disc objects, and some such as Sedna have sometimes been considered to be included in this group. == Discovery == Traditionally, devices like a blink comparator were used in astronomy to detect objects in the Solar System, because these objects would move between two exposures—this involved time-consuming steps like exposing and developing photographic plates or films, and people then using a blink comparator to manually detect prospective objects. During the 1980s, the use of CCD-based cameras in telescopes made it possible to directly produce electronic images that could then be readily digitized and transferred to digital images. Because the CCD captured more light than film (about 90% versus 10% of incoming light) and the blinking could now be done at an adjustable computer screen, the surveys allowed for higher throughput. A flood of new discoveries was the result: over a thousand trans-Neptunian objects were detected between 1992 and 2006. The first scattered-disc object (SDO) to be recognised as such was , originally identified in 1996 by astronomers based at Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Three more were identified by the same survey in 1999: , , and .〔 The first object presently classified as an SDO to be discovered was , found in 1995 by Spacewatch.〔Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003); ''Dictionary of Minor Planet Names'' (5th rev. and enlarged ed. edition). Berlin: Springer. Page 925 (Appendix 10). Also see McFadden, Lucy-Ann, Weissman, Paul & Johnson, Torrence (1999). ''Encyclopedia of the Solar System''. San Diego: Academic Press. Page 218.〕 As of 2011, over 200 SDOs have been identified,〔 including (discovered by Schwamb, Brown, and Rabinowitz), (NEAT), Eris (Brown, Trujillo, and Rabinowitz), Sedna (Brown, Trujillo, and Rabinowitz)〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=Minor Planet Center )〕 and (Deep Ecliptic Survey). Although the numbers of objects in the Kuiper belt and the scattered disc are hypothesized to be roughly equal, observational bias due to their greater distance means that far fewer SDOs have been observed to date. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Scattered disc」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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