Population of the Scattered Kuiper Belt

Abstract

We present the discovery of three new scattered Kuiper Belt objects (SKBOs) from a wide-field survey of the ? ecliptic. This continuing survey has to date covered 20.2 deg2 ? to a limiting red magnitude of 23.6. We combine the data from this new survey with an existing survey conducted at the University of Hawaii 2.2 m telescope ? ? ? to constrain the number and mass of the SKBOs. The SKBOs are characterized by large eccentricities, perihelia near 35 AU, and semimajor axes greater than 50 AU. Using a maximum likelihood model, we estimate the total number of SKBOs larger than 100 km in diameter to be N= (3.1 1.3) ? ? ? 1.9 4 ? ? 10 (1 ? SKBOs to be M 0.05 M , demonstrating that the SKBOs are similar in number and mass to the Kuiper Belt ??? ? ??? ? ? ? errors) and the total mass of inside 50 AU.