[Baps] Grad Student Research Forum at CfA

[Jennifer Grier]

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2

4:20 pm: Graduate Student Research Forum. "Deep Searches for Kuiper 
Belt Objects," Dr. Matthew Holman, CfA. Preceded by refreshments. 
Phillips Auditorium.

Abstract: Since the planetesimals in extrasolar systems are too faint 
to see with present or planned telescopes, the Kuiper Belt is our 
best chance to test models of accretional/collisional evolution 
against observations. Last February, Bernstein et al. (2003) 
conducted a survey of 6 HST ACS/WFC fields (0.02 sq. deg.) to detect 
KBOs as faint as magnitude R = 28.7, corresponding to diameters as 
small as D=25 km. While roughly 85 detections were expected from a 
simple extrapolation of the luminosity function at brighter 
magnitudes, only three new Kuiper belt objects were discovered, 
indicating a significant break in an otherwise power law distribution 
of sizes. Such a break has been seen in numerical simulations of the 
collisional evolution of the Kuiper belt (Davis and Farinella 1997; 
Kenyon and Luu 1999). Despite the depth of the HST/ACS search, the 
limited number of known KBOs in the magnitude range 25 < R < 27 
leaves the location of the break in the size distribution poorly 
constrained. With the availability of Megacam on the MMT and IMACS on 
Magellan we are now in a position to conduct deep searches for KBOs 
to better establish the size distribution in this magnitude range.
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