Gulbis: KBOs

  The Kuiper Belt, a group of small objects having orbits from ~ 30 to 50 AU, is particularly fascinating because it is likely the least thermally modified region of the solar system and thus may contain a primordial population of objects. This is important because objects that are remnants from earlier times provide insight into the formation and evolution of the solar system. In addition, they provide clues for understanding planetary formation processes that are occurring around other stars. Pluto and Charon, while special because they were discovered long before other KBOs, are located in the Kuiper Belt (in a 3:2 resonance with Neptune).

    My colleagues and I have studied the Kuiper Belt by searching for new objects (as part of the Deep Ecliptic Survey) and performing dynamical analyses (e.g. Gulbis et al. 2010 & Elliot et al., 2005). We have also investigated the relationship between KBO orbital dynamics and color through photometric observations with the Magellan 6.5-m telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory (Gulbis et al. 2006b). Our studies of Pluto and Charon via stellar occultation observations have discovered waves in Pluto's atmosphere (Person et al. 2008 and McCarthy et al. 2008), tracked changes in Pluto's atmosphere (e.g. Elliot et al., 2007) and set stringent limits on the size and possible atmosphere of Charon (Gulbis et al., 2006a & Person et al., 2006). 

KBO Publications:

Elliot, J. L., S. D. Kern, K. B. Clancy, A. A. S. Gulbis, R. L. Millis, M. W. Buie, L. H. Wasserman, E. I. Chiang, A. B. Jordan, D. E. Trilling, K. J. Meech, The Deep Ecliptic Survey: A search for Kuiper belt objects and Centaurs. II. Dynamical classification, the Kuiper belt plane, and the core population, Astronomical Journal, 129, 1117-1162, 2005.

Gulbis, A.A.S, J.L. Elliot, and J.F. Kane, The Color of the Kuiper Belt Core, Icarus, 183, 168-178, 2006b.

Gulbis, A.A.S, J.L. Elliot, E.A. Adams, S.D. Benecchi, M.W. Buie, D.E. Trilling, L.W. Wasserman, Unbiased Inclination Distributions for Objects in the Kuiper Belt, Astron, J., 140, 350-369, 2010.