Boulder, Colo. -- December 7, 2005 -- One hundred years ago today, Dutch-American astronomer Gerard P. Kuiper was born in Harenscarpel, The Netherlands. Just over one month from now, NASA plans to launch its first mission, New Horizons, to study explore the fascinating region of the solar system that Kuiper foresaw.

Kuiper became one of the greatest 20th century astronomers and is widely considered the father of planetary science. Among his most notable accomplishments was a widely publicized 1950 prediction that a giant debris belt from the formation of the solar system resides beyond the orbit of Neptune. That prediction was borne out in the 1990s when astronomers discovered the first bodies orbiting with Pluto beyond Neptune. More than 1,000 "Kuiper Belt" objects are now known; astronomers expect over 100,000 such objects to be eventually discovered. Kuiper became a U.S. citizen in 1937.

"It's fitting that New Horizons will take flight near the centennial of Dr. Kuiper's birth," says Dr. Alan Stern, principal investigator of the New Horizons mission and executive director of the Space Science and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute. "The Kuiper Belt is the largest structure in our planetary system and the home of the Pluto system, as well as myriad other miniature worlds that orbit in a deep freeze far beyond Neptune, the most distant of the giant planets. Its discovery has revolutionized our understanding of the architecture of our home solar system and forced us to confront the jarring, but exciting new fact that miniature planets like Pluto are more numerous than the conventional ones like Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and the giant planets."

Among Kuiper's students were such notable 20th century planetary scientists as Carl Sagan, William Hartmann, Toby Owen, Tom Gehrels and New Horizons Science Team Co-Investigator Dr. Dale Cruikshank of the NASA Ames Research Center in California.

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http://www.swri.org/9what/releases/2005/Kuiper.htm