Related papers: Initial Planetesimal Sizes and the Size Distributi…

We present the results of a pencil-beam survey of the Kuiper Belt using the Keck 10-m telescope. A single 0.01 square degree field is imaged 29 times for a total integration time of 4.8 hr. Combining exposures in software allows the…

It appears that at least several percent of large Kuiper belt objects are members of wide binaries. Physical collisions are too infrequent to account for their formation. Collisionless gravitational interactions are more promising. These…

We present the results of a wide-field survey designed to measure the size, inclination, and radial distributions of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs). The survey found 86 KBOs in 73 square degrees observed to limiting red magnitude 23.7 using the…

The dynamical evolution of Classical Kuiper Belt Objects (CKBOs) divides into two parts, according to the secular theory of test particle orbits. The first part is a forced oscillation driven by the planets, while the second part is a free…

Knowledge of the Kuiper Belt is currently limited to those objects that can be detected directly. Objects with diameters less than $\sim$10km reflect too little light to be detected. These smaller bodies could contain most of the mass in…

The small bodies in the Kuiper Belt region of the distant Solar System are leftovers from planet formation. Their orbital distribution today tells us about how giant planets migrated, while their surface properties, shapes, and sizes tell…

Large Kuiper Belt Objects are conventionally thought to have formed out of a massive planetesimal belt that is a few thousand times its current mass. Such a picture, however, is incompatible with multiple lines of evidence. Here, we present…

[Condensed] We search 0.02 deg^2 for trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) with m<=29.2 (diameter ~15 km) using the ACS on HST. Three new objects are discovered, roughly 25 times fewer than expected from extrapolation of the differential sky…

The size distribution of TNOs in the Kuiper Belt provides crucial insights into the formation and evolution of the outer Solar System. Recent observational surveys, including OSSOS++, have revealed that dynamically cold and hot TNO…

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 square degrees to a limiting red magnitude of 23.6. We combine the data…

In this paper we study the role of dynamical friction on the evolution of a population of large objects ($m>10^{22}$ g) at heliocentric distances $>70$ AU in the Kuiper Belt. We show that the already flat distribution of these objects must…

Kuiper Belt objects with absolute magnitude less than 3 (radius $\gtrsim$500 km), the dwarf planets, have a range of different ice/rock ratios, and are more rock-rich than their smaller counterparts. Many of these objects have moons, which…

Escalating observations of exo-minor planets and their destroyed remnants both passing through the solar system and within white dwarf planetary systems motivate an understanding of the orbital history and fate of exo-Kuiper belts and…

Accretion among macroscopic bodies of ~km size or larger is enhanced significantly due to gravitational focusing. Two regimes can be distinguished. Initially, the system experiences runaway growth, in which the gravitational focusing…

The Kepler transit survey with follow-up spectroscopic observations has discovered numerous super-Earth sized planets and revealed intriguing features of their sizes, orbital periods, and their relations between adjacent planets. For the…

A large fraction of 100-km-class low-inclination objects in the classical Kuiper Belt (KB) are binaries with comparable mass and wide separation of components. A favored model for their formation was capture during the coagulation growth of…

Measuring the size distribution of small (km-scale) KBOs can help constrain models of Solar System formation and planetary migration. Such small, distant bodies are hard to detect with current or planned telescopes, but can be identified as…

I show that the WFIRST microlensing survey will enable detection and precision orbit determination of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) down to H_=28.2 over an effective area of about 17 sq.deg. Typical fractional period errors will be about 1.5%…

We simulated the long-term collisional depletion of debris disks around solar-type (G2V) stars with our code. The numerical results were supplemented by, and interpreted through, a new analytic model. A few general scaling rules for the…

Observations indicate that the gaseous circumstellar disks around young stars vary significantly in size, ranging from tens to thousands of AU. Models of planet formation depend critically upon the properties of these primordial disks, yet…