English Dictionary

scattered disc

name

(astronomy) A trans-Neptunian region of the Solar System that overlaps the outer edge of the Kuiper belt, but also extends far beyond it, and is populated sparsely by small Solar System bodies.

The scattered disc is a region in the outermost part of the Solar System.

意味（1）

(astronomy) A trans-Neptunian region of the Solar System that overlaps the outer edge of the Kuiper belt, but also extends far beyond it, and is populated sparsely by small Solar System bodies.

There are presently about 200 known objects in the scattered disc, but some of their orbits are rather uncertain. Obviously, most of these objects are observed at perihelion passage, because their semimajor axes might be as large as hundreds of AU (where they would not be observable); if observational biases are taken into account, the scattered-disc population is probably as large as [that of] the classical [Kuiper] belt.