We present a new near-infrared photometric system for detection of water ice and methane ice in the solar system .
The system consists of two medium-band filters in the K -band region of the near-infrared , which are sensitive to water ice and methane ice , plus continuum observations in the J -band and Y -band .
The primary purpose of this system is to distinguish between three basic types of Kuiper Belt Objects ( KBOs ) — those rich in water ice , those rich in methane ice , and those with little absorbance .
In this work , we present proof-of-concept observations of 51 KBOs using our filter system , 21 of which have never been observed in the near-IR spectroscopically .
We show that our custom photometric system is consistent with previous spectroscopic observations while reducing telescope observing time by a factor of \sim 3 .
We use our filters to identify Haumea collisional family members , which are thought to be collisional remnants of a much larger body and are characterized by large fractions of water ice on their surfaces .
We add 2009 YE _ { 7 } to the Haumea collisional family based on our water ice band observations ( J - H _ { 2 } O = -1.03 \pm 0.27 ) which indicate a high amount of water ice absorption , our calculated proper orbital elements , and the neutral optical colors we measured , V - R = 0.38 \pm 0.04 , which are all consistent with the rest of the Haumea family .
We identify several objects dynamically similar to Haumea as being distinct from the Haumea family as they do not have water ice on their surfaces .
In addition , we find that only the largest KBOs have methane ice , and we find that Haumea itself has significantly less water ice absorption than the smaller Haumea family members .
We find no evidence for other families in the Kuiper Belt .