Large Bodies in the Kuiper Belt | Zendy

Chadwick A. Trujillo | Zendy; Jane Luu | Zendy; A. S. Bosh | Zendy; J. L. Elliot | Zendy

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Large Bodies in the Kuiper Belt

Author(s) -

Chadwick A. Trujillo,

Jane Luu,

A. S. Bosh,

J. L. Elliot

Publication year - 2001

Publication title -

the astronomical journal

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 2.61

H-Index - 271

eISSN - 1538-3881

pISSN - 0004-6256

DOI - 10.1086/323709

Subject(s) - centaur , physics , observatory , astronomy , astrophysics , trans neptunian object , ecliptic , solar system , telescope , magnitude (astronomy) , geometric albedo , limiting , limiting magnitude , photometry (optics) , stars , solar wind , mechanical engineering , quantum mechanics , magnetic field , engineering

We present a survey for bright Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) and Centaurs,conducted at the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) 0.9 m telescope with theKPNO 8k Mosaic CCD. The survey imaged 164 sq deg near opposition to a limitingred magnitude of 21.1. Three bright KBOs and one Centaur were found, thebrightest KBO having red magnitude 19.7, about 700 km in diameter assuming adark Centaur-like 4% albedo. We estimate the power-law differential sizedistribution of the Classical KBOs to have index q = 4.2 (+0.4)(-0.3), with thetotal number of Classical KBOs with diameters larger than 100 km equal to 4.7(+1.6)(-1.0) x 10^4. Additionally, we find that if there is a maximum objectsize in the Kuiper Belt, it must be larger than 1000 km in diameter. Byextending our model to larger size bodies, we estimate that 30 (+16)(-12)Charon-sized and 3.2 (+2.8)(-1.7) Pluto-sized Classical KBOs remainundiscovered.Comment: 33 pages, 7 figures, to appear in Nov 2001 Astronomical Journa

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