Belskaya I. Surface optical properties of asteroids, Centaurs and Kuiper belt objects

The work is devoted to investigation of the optical properties of two populations of minor bodies situated in the inner and outer parts of our Solar System. The obtained results are based on the wide photometric and polarimetric observational programs. The first taxonomy of Kuiper belt objects is proposed to distinguish groups of TNOs having the same behaviour concerning their BVRIJ colours. The distributions of the classes with respect to the distance from the Sun and to the orbital inclination give some hints on the chemico-physical structure of the inner part of the Kuiper belt. Results of polarimetric observations of more than 100 asteroids, which practically double in size available data set, expand our knowledge on asteroid optical properties and permit to discover objects with particular polarimetric properties. New features in brightness and polarization phase angle dependences were found and analysed both for main belt asteroids and for Kuiper belt objects.