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What makes the orbits of scattering Kuiper belt objects unstable?
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Kuiper belt
An artist's rendition of a binary object in the Kuiper belt. The two objects depicted orbit each other at the edge of the solar system.
The orbits of scattering Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) are unstable primarily due to their significant gravitational interactions with Neptune.1
While many KBOs occupy metastable orbitsāmeaning they remain stable for timescales ranging from 100 million to 1 billion yearsāscattering KBOs are subject to gravitational forces that render their orbits unstable on much shorter, million-year timescales. These objects are currently understood to be in a transitional phase, moving from metastable orbits toward becoming Centaur objects and, eventually, short-period comets.1