[56.10] Where Are the Small Ones?

AAS 205th Meeting, 9-13 January 2005
Session 56 Planets and Solar System Objects
Poster, Tuesday, January 11, 2005, 9:20am-6:30pm, Exhibit Hall

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[56.10] Where Are the Small Ones?

S.H.R. Bank, A.D. Storrs (Towson Univ.)

We have detected four asteroidal companions with the Wide-Field/Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC-2) of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Merline et al. (2004) have detected two more with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) (DPS talk 46.01, BAAS in press). Most of these are easily detected, well above the noise level in the images. We present constraints on the minimally detectable companions using direct imaging with HST, and ask the question "Where are the small ones?" since the only companions detected (so far) are so bright. If companions are collisional fragments they should have a power-law size distribution and we should detect many more small ones, near the observation threshold.

The Hubble Space Telescope is operated by NASA and ESA. We wish to acknowledge the support of NASA contract NAS5-2655, and of Towson University.

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