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C.A. Trujillo, D.C. Jewitt (Univ. of Hawaii), J.X. Luu (Leiden University)
We have conducted a wide-field survey for Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) at the 3.6-m diameter Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope with the 12k x 8k Mosaic CCD camera. In this survey alone, we have found 86 KBOs in 76 square degrees observed to limiting red magnitude 23.7. Our uniform survey with a single instrument allows quantitative calibration of observational biases. We present results for the 57 Classical KBOs (CKBOs, typified by orbits having moderate eccentricities and semimajor axes in the 40 AU to 46 AU range) found in our sample: (1) the CKBOs follow a q = 3.7 differential size distribution, (2) the CKBOs inhabit a thick disk with a Gaussian half-width of 18 degrees and (3) the Classical Kuiper Belt has an outer edge near 50 AU. We will briefly discuss the impact of these findings on models for the origin and evolution of the Kuiper Belt.
This project was funded by a NASA grant to DCJ.
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