a belt of icy debris orbiting in the outer solar system, thought to be the source of many comets
See Kuiper belt in American Heritage Dictionary 4
(kīˈpər)
noun
A disk-shaped region in the outer solar system lying beyond the orbit of Neptune and extending to a distance of about 50 astronomical units, containing thousands of small icy bodies, some of which are on highly elliptical orbits, periodically visiting the inner solar system as comets.