Population of the Scattered Kuiper Belt.
We present the discovery of three new scattered Kuiper Belt objects (SKBOs) from a wide-field survey of the ecliptic. This continuing survey has to date covered 20.2 deg2 to a limiting red magnitude of 23.6. We combine the data from this new survey with an existing survey conducted at the University of Hawaii 2.2 m telescope to constrain the number and mass of the SKBOs. The SKBOs are characterized by large eccentricities, perihelia near 35 AU, and semimajor axes greater than 50 AU. Using a maximum likelihood model, we estimate the total number of SKBOs larger than 100 km in diameter to be N=&parl0;3.1+1.9-1.3&parr0;x104 (1 sigma errors) and the total mass of SKBOs to be M approximately 0.05 M plus sign in circle, demonstrating that the SKBOs are similar in number and mass to the Kuiper Belt inside 50 AU.
Trujillo
CA
Jewitt
DC
Luu
JX