THE TAOS PROJECT: UPPER BOUNDS ON THE POPULATION OF SMALL KUIPER BELT OBJECTS AND TESTS OF MODELS OF FORMATION AND EVOLUTION OF THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM

被引:34
作者
Bianco, F. B. [1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ]
Zhang, Z. -W. [5 ,6 ]
Lehner, M. J. [4 ,5 ]
Mondal, S. [7 ]
King, S. -K. [5 ]
Giammarco, J. [8 ,9 ]
Holman, M. J. [4 ]
Coehlo, N. K. [10 ]
Wang, J. -H. [5 ,6 ]
Alcock, C. [4 ]
Axelrod, T. [11 ]
Byun, Y. -I. [12 ]
Chen, W. P. [6 ]
Cook, K. H. [13 ]
Dave, R. [14 ]
de Pater, I. [15 ]
Kim, D. -W. [12 ,14 ]
Lee, T. [5 ]
Lin, H. -C. [5 ]
Lissauer, J. J. [16 ]
Marshall, S. L. [17 ]
Protopapas, P. [4 ,14 ]
Rice, J. A. [10 ]
Schwamb, M. E. [18 ]
Wang, S. -Y. [5 ]
Wen, C. -Y. [5 ]
机构
[1] Univ Calif Santa Barbara, Dept Phys, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 USA
[2] Global Telescope Network Inc, Cumbres Observ, Santa Barbara, CA 93117 USA
[3] Univ Penn, Dept Phys & Astron, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA
[4] Harvard Smithsonian Ctr Astrophys, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
[5] Acad Sinica, Inst Astron & Astrophys, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
[6] Natl Cent Univ, Inst Astron, Jhongli 32054, Taiwan
[7] ARIES, Naini Tal 263129, India
[8] Eastern Univ, Dept Phys & Astron, St Davids, PA 19087 USA
[9] Villanova Univ, Dept Phys, Villanova, PA 19085 USA
[10] Univ Calif Berkeley, Dept Stat, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA
[11] Univ Arizona, Steward Observ, Tucson, AZ 85721 USA
[12] Yonsei Univ, Dept Astron, Seoul 120749, South Korea
[13] Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab, Inst Geophys & Planetary Phys, Livermore, CA 94550 USA
[14] Initiat Innovat Comp Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
[15] Univ Calif Berkeley, Dept Astron, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA
[16] NASA, Ames Res Ctr, Space Sci & Astrobiol Div 245 3, Moffett Field, CA 94035 USA
[17] Kavli Inst Particle Astrophys & Cosmol, Menlo Pk, CA 94025 USA
[18] CALTECH, Div Geol & Planetary Sci, Pasadena, CA 91125 USA
基金
新加坡国家研究基金会;
关键词
Kuiper belt: general; occultations; AMERICAN OCCULTATION SURVEY; JUPITER-FAMILY COMETS; TRANS-NEPTUNIAN BODIES; SIZE DISTRIBUTION; STELLAR OCCULTATIONS; COLLISIONAL EVOLUTION; SCATTERED DISK; OORT CLOUD; SEARCH; ACCRETION;
D O I
10.1088/0004-6256/139/4/1499
中图分类号
P1 [天文学];
学科分类号
0704 ;
摘要
We have analyzed the first 3.75 years of data from the Taiwanese American Occultation Survey (TAOS). TAOS monitors bright stars to search for occultations by Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs). This data set comprises 5 x 10(5) star hours of multi-telescope photometric data taken at 4 or 5 Hz. No events consistent with KBO occultations were found in this data set. We compute the number of events expected for the Kuiper Belt formation and evolution models of Pan & Sari, Kenyon & Bromley, Benavidez & Campo Bagatin, and Fraser. A comparison with the upper limits we derive from our data constrains the parameter space of these models. This is the first detailed comparison of models of the KBO size distribution with data from an occultation survey. Our results suggest that the KBO population is composed of objects with low internal strength and that planetary migration played a role in the shaping of the size distribution.
引用
收藏
页码:1499 / 1514
页数:16
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