Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Oct 2000
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000dps....32.2005a&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS Meeting #32, #20.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 32, p.1029
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The population of the Kuiper Belt within 50 AU of the Sun has likely been severely depleted by gravitational perturbations from the giant planets, particularly Neptune. The density of Kuiper Belt objects might be expected to be higher just beyond 50 AU, where planetary perturbations are very weak. In 1998 and 1999, we surveyed for Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) in 6 fields of the ecliptic (total sky area 1.4 deg2) with limiting magnitudes between R=25.0 and R=25.8. This is deep enough to detect KBOs of diameter ≳ 160 km at a distance of 65 AU. We discovered 24 objects. None of these objects, however, is beyond 55 AU. Our survey places a 95% CL upper limit of Σ < 5 deg-2 on the surface density of KBOs larger than ~160 km beyond 55 AU. This can be compared to the surface density of ~8 deg-2 of >=160 km KBOs at distances 30---50 AU determined from this survey and previous shallower surveys. A comparison of the volume densities indicates the region from 55---65 AU has a volume density at most 72 40---50 AU, at a 95 50 AU is excluded in this model-independent estimate, implying that some process or event in the history of the Solar System has truncated the distribution of 200-km planetesimals at ~50 AU. A dense primordial disk could be present beyond 50 AU if it contains only smaller objects, or is sufficiently thin and inclined to have escaped detection in our 6 survey fields. This work is supported by NASA Planetary Astronomy grant #NAG5-7860.
Allen Rhiannon Lynne
Bernstein Gary M.
Malhotra Renu
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