POPULATION OF THE SCATTERED KUIPER BELT OBJECTS

Chad Trujillo, David Jewitt, and Jane Luu

Astrophysical Journal Letters (2000), 529, L103

Abstract
We present the discovery of three new scattered Kuiper Belt objects (SKBOs) from a wide-field survey of the ecliptic. This continuing survey has to date covered 20.2 sq. deg. to a limiting red magnitude of 23.6. We combine the data from this new survey with an existing survey conducted at the University of Hawaii 2.2 m telescope to constrain the number and mass of the SKBOs. The SKBOs are characterized by large eccentricities, perihelia near 35 AU, and semimajor axes greater than 50 AU. Using a maximum likelihood model, we estimate the total number of SKBOs larger than 100 km in diameter to be N = 3.1 (+1.9/-1.3)) x 10^4 and the total mass of SKBOs to be ~0.05 Me, demonstrating that the SKBOs are similar in number and mass to the Kuiper Belt inside 50 AU.


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Last updated February 2000

Kuiper Belt