Two Distinct Populations of Kuiper Belt Objects

Details Two Distinct Populations of Kuiper Belt Objects Two Distinct Populations of Kuiper Belt Objects

Feb 1999

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999noao.prop..209t&link_type=abstract

NOAO Proposal ID #1999A-0209

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Scientific paper

During the last three years we have been funded by the NASA Origins of Solar Systems Program to obtain optical colors for the brightest Centaur and Kuiper Belt Objects using the Steward Observatory 2.3-m telescope. We reported in the March 5 issue of Nature that the brightest Centaur and Kuiper Belt Objects fall into two populations: one consists of objects whose surface colors are only slightly redder than the color of the Sun, while the other consists of the reddest objects known in the Solar System. The presence of two distinct color groups suggests two types of surface compositions and that something important and unexpected happened in the outer Solar System. Here we propose to obtain optical colors for fainter (smaller and more distant) Kuiper Belt Objects using the WIYN telescope in order to constrain the mechanism responsible for the two color populations.

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