Visible and infrared photometry of fourteen Kuiper Belt objects

We present V-J colors of 14 Kuiper Belt objects using new infrared (J) data combined, in most cases, with simultaneous visible (V) data. We confirm th e V-J vs absolute magnitude relation reported by Jewitt and Luu (1998) for the five objects in their data set but demonstrate that the relationship do es not hold for a larger sample. Kuiper Belt objects exhibit a wide range o f V-J colors, but there is no correlation with heliocentric distance or orb ital class. The bimodality seen in BVR colors by Tegler and Romanishin (199 8) is not present in optical-infrared colors. (C) 2000 Academic Press.