A single sub-kilometre Kuiper belt object from a stellar occultation in archival data

H. E. Schlichting (), E. O. Ofek (), M. Wenz, R. Sari, A. Gal-Yam, M. Livio, E. Nelan and S. Zucker
Additional contact information
H. E. Schlichting: 249-17, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
E. O. Ofek: 249-17, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
M. Wenz: Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA
R. Sari: 249-17, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
A. Gal-Yam: Faculty of Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, POB 26, Rehovot 76100, Israel
M. Livio: Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA
E. Nelan: Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA
S. Zucker: Tel Aviv University

Nature, 2009, vol. 462, issue 7275, 895-897

Abstract: Kuiper belt occultations Kuiper belt objects occupy a region of the Solar System beyond the orbit of Neptune. Many — including the dwarf planets Pluto, Haumea and Makemake — are more than 100 km in diameter. At the opposite end of the scale, sub-kilometre-sized objects cannot be observed directly. But they should be detectable as occultations of background stars and one such detection is now reported. A survey of archival data reveals an occultation by a body with a radius of about 500 metres at a distance of 45 astronomical units (Neptune orbits at about 30 AU) from the Sun. The fact that just one event was found in the survey suggests a deficit of sub-kilometre bodies, compared to that expected from extrapolation of the population of '50-km' bodies: this may mean that the smaller Kuiper belt objects are gradually disappearing as they collide with one another.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1038/nature08608

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