Scattered disc

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The scattered disc (or scattered disk) is a distant region of the Solar System that is sparsely populated by icy minor planets, a subset of the broader family of trans-Neptunian objects.

The scattered-disc objects (SDOs) have orbital eccentricities ranging as high as 0.8, inclinations as high as 40A(deg), and perihelia greater than 30 astronomical units (4.5x109 km; 2.8x109 mi).

These extreme orbits are believed to be the result of gravitational "e;scattering"e; by the gas giants, and the objects continue to be subject to perturbation by the planet Neptune.

While the nearest distance to the Sun approached by scattered objects is about 30-35 AU, their orbits can extend well beyond 100 AU.

This makes scattered objects "e;among the most distant and cold objects in the Solar System"e;.

The innermost portion of the scattered disc overlaps with a torus-shaped region of orbiting objects traditionally called the Kuiper belt, but its outer limits reach much farther away from the Sun and farther above and below the ecliptic than the belt proper.