Water Ice in 2060 Chiron and Its Implications for Centaurs and Kuiper Belt Objects.

We report the detection of water ice in the Centaur 2060 Chiron, based on near-infrared spectra (1.0-2.5 µm) taken with the 3.8 m United Kingdom Infrared Telescope and the 10 m Keck Telescope. The appearance of this ice is correlated with the recent decline in Chiron's cometary activity: the decrease in the coma cross section allows previously hidden solid-state surface features to be seen. We predict that water ice is ubiquitous among Centaurs and Kuiper Belt objects, but its surface coverage varies from object to object and thus determines its detectability and the occurrence of cometary activity.

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.