1996/09/01 by David Jewitt, Jane Luu, Jun Chen · 15 citations
Physics and Astronomy · Arts and Humanities · #Astro and Planetary Science #Planetary Science and Exploration #Maritime and Coastal Archaeology
paper · doi:10.1086/118093
openalex publication_date 1996/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
We present the results of a medium depth ecliptic sky survey conducted with telescopes at the Mauna Kea and Cerro-Tololo Observatories. The survey revealed 15 new Kuiper Belt objects, and 2 Centaurs (objects orbiting in the vicinity of the gas giant planets), bringing the total number of Kuiper Belt objects to 32 and Centaurs to 6. We use the new objects to begin to constrain some of the properties of the Kuiper Belt and Centaur populations. The apparent width of the Kuiper Belt is 10° full width at half maximum (FWHM) but, after correcting for the effects of observational selection, we find that the intrinsic width must be at least 30 FWHM. The inferred number of objects in the 30-50 AU heliocentric distance range is 7 X 1 (diameters 100 km). Of these, about 40% (≍3×10<SUP>4</SUP>) are in or near the 3:2 mean-motion resonance with Neptune. Pluto, which also occupies this resonance, is now seen as the largest of a hitherto unknown family of dynamically similar, resonantly trapped objects. We find that the Centaurs have a sky-plane surface density that is ≍0.5 deg<SUP>-2</SUP> to m<SUB>R</SUB>=24.2. The total population with absolute magnitude H<SUB>R</SUB>≤9.5 (diameter approximately ≥75 km if albedo ≍0.04) is N≍2600, about an order of magnitude greater than the corresponding number of large main-belt asteroids. We crudely estimate that 1.5 M<SUB>Earth</SUB> of material has been cycled from the Kuiper Belt through the Centaurs in the age of the solar system.