Resonant Kuiper Belt Objects -- a Review

TL;DR

This review discusses recent advances in understanding the Kuiper belt's structure and its implications for the solar system's history, emphasizing planetary migration and resonant populations.

Contribution

It synthesizes new theoretical insights and observational evidence on Kuiper belt resonances, highlighting their role in solar system evolution.

Findings

Planetary migration shaped the Kuiper belt structure

Resonant populations provide clues to planetary history

Recent observations support dynamic models of solar system formation

Abstract

Our understanding of the history of the solar system has undergone a revolution in recent years, owing to new theoretical insights into the origin of Pluto and the discovery of the Kuiper belt and its rich dynamical structure. The emerging picture of dramatic orbital migration of the planets driven by interaction with the primordial Kuiper belt is thought to have produced the final solar system architecture that we live in today. This paper gives a brief summary of this new view of our solar system's history, and reviews the astronomical evidence in the resonant populations of the Kuiper belt.