What we (don't) know about the trans-Neptunian objects

The first trans-Neptunian object was discovered in 1930 and we waited over 60 years to discover the second one. The discovery of Albion (a.k.a. 1992QB1) enticed the minor bodies community to characterize the new population, called collectively as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). Today we know the existence of over 2,000 objects and counting. Nevertheless, it seems that we have reached our technological limitation in terms of observational studies. But, have we really reached an impasse?

In this talk, I will review past and current understanding of the observational and (some) dynamical properties of the trans-Neptunian population with the intention of pointing out what we actually do not know about them and how current and new technology can help us.