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Pencil-Beam Surveys for Faint Trans-Neptunian Objects

Brett Gladman·JJ Kavelaars·Philip D. Nicholson·Thomas J. Loredo·Joseph A. Burns
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Abstract

We have conducted pencil-beam searches for outer solar system objects to a limiting magnitude of R ~ 26. Five new trans-neptunian objects were detected in these searches. Our combined data set provides an estimate of ~90 trans-neptunian objects per square degree brighter than ~ 25.9. This estimate is a factor of 3 above the expected number of objects based on an extrapolation of previous surveys with brighter limits, and appears consistent with the hypothesis of a single power-law luminosity function for the entire trans-neptunian region. Maximum likelihood fits to all self-consistent published surveys with published efficiency functions predicts a cumulative sky density Sigma(<R) obeying log10(Sigma) = 0.76(R-23.4) objects per square degree brighter than a given magnitude R.

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Brett Gladman, JJ Kavelaars, Philip D. Nicholson, Thomas J. Loredo, Joseph A. Burns. 1998-06-25. Pencil-Beam Surveys for Faint Trans-Neptunian Objects. https://doi.org/10.1086/300573

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