The Kuiper Belt and Olbers Paradox

Abstract

We investigate the constraints that Olbers Paradox, applied to the Zodiacal Background as measured from space, sets on outer solar system objects. If extended to very faint limits, R = 40--50 mag, the steep optical luminosity function (LF) of Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) at R less than 26 mag implies an infinitely bright night sky. Small KBOs with radii of 1 mm to 1 km must have a size distribution n(r) proportional to r^{-a}, with a = 3.5 or smaller to satisfy the known limits on the sky-surface brightness at optical and far-infrared wavelengths. Improved limits on the measured KBO surface brightness can yield direct estimates of the albedo, temperature, and size distribution for small KBOs in the outer solar system.

4 pages and 2 figures; submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letters

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Cited by in corpus (14)

• The Size Distribution of Trans-Neptunian Bodies
• The Size Distribution of Kuiper Belt Objects
• Planet Formation in the Outer Solar System
• A New Look at the Evolution of Wolf-Rayet Central Stars of Planetary Nebulae
• A Search for sub-km KBOs with the Method of Serendipitous Stellar Occultations
• Other Kuiper Belts
• A Search for Occultations of Bright Stars by Small Kuiper Belt Objects using Megacam on the MMT
• The TAOS Project: Upper Bounds on the Population of Small KBOs and Tests of Models of Formation and Evolution of the Outer Solar System
• Extragalactic Background Light: Inventory of light throughout the cosmic history
• What Can the Cosmic Microwave Background Tell Us About the Outer Solar System?
• SKYSURF: Constraints on Zodiacal Light and Extragalactic Background Light through Panchromatic HST All-Sky Surface-Brightness Measurements: II. First Limits on Diffuse Light at 1.25, 1.4, and 1.6 microns
• On the Use of Cherenkov Telescopes for Outer Solar System Body Occultations
• Microwave Emission from the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt and the Asteroid Belt Constrained from WMAP
• Assessing the contribution of Centaur impacts to ice giant luminosities