Abstract
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 the KPNO 8K Mosaic CCD. The survey imaged 164 deg2 near opposition to a limiting red magnitude of 21.1. Three bright KBOs and one Centaur were found, the brightest KBO having red magnitude 19.7, about 700 km in diameter, assuming a dark Centaur-like 4% albedo. We estimate the power-law differential size distribution of the classical KBOs to have index q = 4.2+0.4-0.3, with the total number of classical KBOs with diameters larger than 100 km equal to 4.7+1.6-1.0 × 104. Additionally, we find that if there is a maximum object size in the Kuiper Belt, it must be larger than 1000 km in diameter. By extending 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 remain undiscovered.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 2740-2748 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Astronomical Journal |
Volume | 122 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 2001 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Comets: General
- Kuiper belt
- Oort cloud
- Solar system: formation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Space and Planetary Science