page_title: Classical Kuiper belt object
section_title: Exploration
hierarchical_section_title: Classical Kuiper belt object / Exploration
caption_attribution_description: English: The orbit of 2014 MU69 with the path of New Horizons.
context_page_description: A classical Kuiper belt object, also called a cubewano, is a low-eccentricity Kuiper belt object that orbits beyond Neptune and is not controlled by an orbital resonance with Neptune. Cubewanos have orbits with semi-major axes in the 40–50 AU range and, unlike Pluto, do not cross Neptune's orbit. That is, they have low-eccentricity and sometimes low-inclination orbits like the classical planets.
  The name "cubewano" derives from the first trans-Neptunian object found after Pluto and Charon, 15760 Albion, which until January 2018 had only had the provisional designation 1992 QB1. Similar objects found later were often called "QB1-o's", or "cubewanos", after this object, though the term "classical" is much more frequently used in the scientific literature.
  Objects identified as cubewanos include:
  15760 Albion
  136472 Makemake, the largest known cubewano and a dwarf planet
  50000 Quaoar and 20000 Varuna, each considered the largest TNO at the time of discovery
  19521 Chaos, 58534 Logos, 53311 Deucalion, 66652 Borasisi, 88611 Teharonhiawako
  1997 CU29, 2002 TX300, 2002 AW197, 2002 UX25
  486958 Arrokoth
context_section_description: As of January 2019, only one classical Kuiper belt object has been observed up close by spacecraft. Both Voyager spacecrafts have passed through the region before the discovery of the Kuiper belt. New Horizons was the first mission to visit a classical KBO. After its successful exploration of the Pluto system in 2015, the NASA spacecraft has visited the small KBO 486958 Arrokoth at a distance of 3,500 kilometres (2,200 mi) on 1 January 2019.
caption: New Horizons trajectory and the orbits of Pluto and 486958 Arrokoth
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