All-Sky Archival Zodiacal Background Measurements: Constraints to Kuiper Belt Objects at R=28-60 mag.

Details All-Sky Archival Zodiacal Background Measurements: Constraints to Kuiper Belt Objects at R=28-60 mag. All-Sky Archival Zodiacal Background Measurements: Constraints to Kuiper Belt Objects at R=28-60 mag.

Jul 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003hst..prop.9955w&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #9955

Physics

Hst Proposal Id #9955 Solar System

Scientific paper

More than 95% of all photons in the HST Archive come from distances 3-50 AU. Yet, no precise all-sky measurements of the optical Zodiacal background exist. We show that such a measurement will significantly constrain the faint counts of Kuiper Belt Objects {KBOs} at R=28-60 mag {i.e., sizes =1 km-1 mm}. The optical luminosity function {LF} of KBOs is predicted to be very steep. We recently applied simple estimates of the on-orbit Zodiacal background in the Ecliptic plane to resolve Olbers Paradox as posed by KBOs, i.e. their apparently diverging sky-brightness integral {Kenyon & Windhorst 2001}, and conclude that KBOs with sizes r= 1mm-1km must have a size distribution n{r}=r^-a with a<3. We propose to make accurate differential Zodiacal background measurements versus Ecliptic coordinates in V {F606W} and I {F814W} from 6, 600 Archival WFPC2 exposures taken in orbital dark-time all over the sky. With careful attention to WFPC2 and foreground systematics, this will allow us to: {1} Study the variance in the Zodiacal background in the Ecliptic plane due to comet trails; {2} Set tighter upper limits to KBO-counts in the range R=28- 60 mag; {3} Measure the KBO integral as a small but significant excess on top of the Zodiacal background as interpolated to Lat=0 deg; {4} Detect the unresolved Plutino population as a Zodi enhancement at certain Longitudes; and {5} Make a direct estimate of the albedo, temperature, and size distribution for small KBOs in the outer solar system.

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