Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 722, Issue 2, Pages 1290-1302Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/722/2/1290
Keywords
celestial mechanics; Kuiper Belt: general; methods: observational; planets and satellites: formation; surveys
Categories
Funding
- Space Telescope Science Institute [11778]
- NASA [NAS 5-26555]
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We introduce a novel search technique that can identify trans-Neptunian objects in three to five exposures of a pointing within a single Hubble Space Telescope (HST) orbit. The process is fast enough to allow the discovery of candidates soon after the data are available. This allows sufficient time to schedule follow-up observations with HST within a month. We report the discovery of 14 slow-moving objects found within 5 degrees of the ecliptic in archival data taken with the Wide Field Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys. The luminosity function of these objects is consistent with previous ground-based and space-based results. We show evidence that the size distribution of both high and low inclination populations is similar for objects smaller than 100 km, as expected from collisional evolution models, while their size distribution differs for brighter objects. We suggest that the two populations formed in different parts of the protoplanetary disk and after being dynamically mixed have collisionally evolved together. Among the objects discovered there is an equal-mass binary with an angular separation similar to 0 ''.53.
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