
The Kuiper belt is a in the outer , extending from the of at 30 (AU) to approximately 50 AU from the . It is similar to the , but is far larger—20 times as wide and 20–200 times as . Like the asteroid belt, it consists mainly of or remnants from when the . While many are.

Natural resources such as , (crude oil) and take thousands of years to form naturally and cannot be replaced as fast as they are being consumed. It is projected that fossil-based resources will eventually become too costly to harvest and humanity will need to shift its reliance to such as solar or wind power. An alternative hypothesis is that carbon-based fuel is virtually inexhaustible in human terms, if o.