Image Details

Choose export citation format:

A Southern Sky and Galactic Plane Survey for Bright Kuiper Belt Objects

  • Authors: Scott S. Sheppard, Andrzej Udalski, Chadwick Trujillo, Marcin Kubiak, Grzegorz Pietrzynski, Radoslaw Poleski, Igor Soszynski, Michal K. Szymański, and Krzysztof Ulaczyk

Sheppard et al. 2011 The Astronomical Journal 142 98.

  • Provider: AAS Journals

Caption: Figure 12.

Absolute magnitude vs. the cumulative number of objects in the main Kuiper Belt (solid line) and its subcategories. The largest few objects have had their absolute magnitudes adjusted as in Figure  8 to account for their higher albedos compared to the smaller objects. The high inclination ( i > 10°) and eccentricity ( e > 0.13) objects (dot-dashed line) dominate the main Kuiper Belt on the large end. There appears to be a sizable group of main Kuiper Belt objects that have high inclinations but low eccentricities ( e < 0.07) (triple dot-dashed line). These high i and low e objects could be related to either of the other subcategories in this figure. Large low inclination and low eccentricity objects (long dashed line) are very rare with only Quaoar being brighter than an absolute magnitude of 4.2.

Other Images in This Article

Show More

Copyright and Terms & Conditions