Large Bodies in the Kuiper Belt

We present a survey for bright Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) and Centaurs, conducted at the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) 0.9 m telescope with the KPNO 8k Mosaic CCD. The survey imaged 164 sq deg near opposition to a limiting red magnitude of 21.1. Three bright KBOs and one Centaur were found, the brightest KBO having red magnitude 19.7, about 700 km in diameter assuming a dark Centaur-like 4% albedo. We estimate the power-law differential size distribution of the Classical KBOs to have index q = 4.2 −0.3, with the total number of Classical KBOs with diameters larger than 100 km equal to 4.7 −1.0 × 10 . Additionally, we find that if there is a maximum object size in the Kuiper Belt, it must be larger than 1000 km in diameter. By extending our model to larger size bodies, we estimate that 30 −12 Charon-sized and 3.2 +2.8 −1.7 Pluto-sized Classical KBOs remain undiscovered. Subject headings: comets: general — Kuiper Belt, Oort Cloud — solar system: formation Now at California Institute of Technology, MS 150-21, Pasadena, CA 91125. [email protected]