On the detectability of light curves of Kuiper Belt objects

Details On the detectability of light curves of Kuiper Belt objects On the detectability of light curves of Kuiper Belt objects

Jan 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003jad.....9r...8l&link_type=abstract

THE JOURNAL OF ASTRONOMICAL DATA Vol. 9 2003

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We present a statistical study of the detectability of light curves of Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs). Some Kuiper Belt objects display light curves that appear "flat", i.e., there are no significant brightness variations within the photometric uncertainties. Under the assumption that KBO light curves are mainly due to shape, the lack of brightness variations may be due to (1) the objects have very nearly spherical shapes, or (2) their rotation axes coincide with the line of sight. We investigate the relative probabilities of these two effects, and how they relate to the intrinsic shape distribution of KBOs. This study suggests that the fraction of KBOs with detectable brightness variations may provide clues about the shape distribution of these objects. Although the current database of rotational properties of KBOs is still insufficient to draw any statistically meaningful conclusions, we expect that, with a larger dataset, this method will provide a useful test for candidate KBO shape distributions.

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