%0 Journal Article %1 Trujillo2003 %A Trujillo, C. A. %A Brown, M. E. %D 2003 %J EARTH MOON AND PLANETS %K CATALOG; CENTAURS; DISTRIBUTION; INCLINATION KUIPER-BELT OBJECTS; SEARCH; SLOW-MOVING STARS SYSTEM; %N 1-4 %P 99--112 %T The Caltech Wide Area Sky Survey %V 92 %X The first phase of the Caltech Wide Area Sky Survey occurred from late November 2001 through mid-April 2003. We present preliminary results from this survey which has detected 28 bright Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) and 4 Centaurs, 19 of which were discovered in our survey including Quaoar, the largest KBO, as well as 6 of the 10 intrinsically brightest KBOs. We have surveyed 5108 square degrees of the sky nearest the invariable plane to a limiting red magnitude of 20.7. Correcting for the overabundance of objects near the invariable plane, this represents 27% completeness in terms of KBO numbers. Thus, approximately 100 KBOs and Centaurs brighter than m(R) = 20.7 exist, about 3/ 4 of which remain undiscovered. The bright KBOs are consistent with the canonical q = 4 size distribution, suggesting that about ten 1000 km diameter KBOs and about one 2000 km diameter KBO exist. Additionally, we observe only 3 KBOs with low inclination (i < 7 degrees) with 67% of the sky available to these objects surveyed. This is in sharp contrast with the known KBOs, of which about 60% of the &SIM; 800 observed objects ( as of May 2003) have i < 7 degrees. Although we observe at systematically higher invariable plane latitudes than many deeper KBO surveys, such systematic biases cannot fully explain the lack of low inclination objects, a measurement which is significant at the >3sigma level. This suggests that the bright KBOs have a fundamentally different maximum size than the fainter KBOs. A better characterization of the survey limiting magnitude and a more thorough modeling of observational bias effects of different classes of KBOs will be made in a future work.

@article{Trujillo2003, abstract = {The first phase of the Caltech Wide Area Sky Survey occurred from late November 2001 through mid-April 2003. We present preliminary results from this survey which has detected 28 bright Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) and 4 Centaurs, 19 of which were discovered in our survey including Quaoar, the largest KBO, as well as 6 of the 10 intrinsically brightest KBOs. We have surveyed 5108 square degrees of the sky nearest the invariable plane to a limiting red magnitude of 20.7. Correcting for the overabundance of objects near the invariable plane, this represents 27% completeness in terms of KBO numbers. Thus, approximately 100 KBOs and Centaurs brighter than m(R) = 20.7 exist, about 3/ 4 of which remain undiscovered. The bright KBOs are consistent with the canonical q = 4 size distribution, suggesting that about ten 1000 km diameter KBOs and about one 2000 km diameter KBO exist. Additionally, we observe only 3 KBOs with low inclination (i < 7 degrees) with 67% of the sky available to these objects surveyed. This is in sharp contrast with the known KBOs, of which about 60% of the &SIM; 800 observed objects ( as of May 2003) have i < 7 degrees. Although we observe at systematically higher invariable plane latitudes than many deeper KBO surveys, such systematic biases cannot fully explain the lack of low inclination objects, a measurement which is significant at the >3sigma level. This suggests that the bright KBOs have a fundamentally different maximum size than the fainter KBOs. A better characterization of the survey limiting magnitude and a more thorough modeling of observational bias effects of different classes of KBOs will be made in a future work.}, added-at = {2009-11-03T20:21:25.000+0100}, author = {Trujillo, C. A. and Brown, M. E.}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2fff1e6744e344cc0e1c025a6a5849197/svance}, interhash = {25a8c836562eef998a71b32ef7633890}, intrahash = {fff1e6744e344cc0e1c025a6a5849197}, journal = {EARTH MOON AND PLANETS}, keywords = {CATALOG; CENTAURS; DISTRIBUTION; INCLINATION KUIPER-BELT OBJECTS; SEARCH; SLOW-MOVING STARS SYSTEM;}, number = {1-4}, owner = {svance}, pages = {99--112}, timestamp = {2009-11-03T20:22:18.000+0100}, title = {The Caltech Wide Area Sky Survey}, volume = 92, year = 2003 }