a region of the solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune, some 30–1000 astronomical units from the sun, containing up to one thousand million icy planetesimals or comet nuclei
See also Oort
Word origin
C20: named after G. P. Kuiper (1905–73), Dutch American astronomer, who proposed it in 1951
Kuiper belt in American English
(ˈkaɪpər)
a belt of icy debris orbiting in the outer solar system, thought to be the source of many comets