A CAREFULLY CHARACTERIZED AND TRACKED TRANS-NEPTUNIAN SURVEY: THE SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF THE PLUTINOS AND THE NUMBER OF NEPTUNIAN TROJANS
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Titre | A CAREFULLY CHARACTERIZED AND TRACKED TRANS-NEPTUNIAN SURVEY: THE SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF THE PLUTINOS AND THE NUMBER OF NEPTUNIAN TROJANS |
Type de publication | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2016 |
Auteurs | Alexandersen M, Gladman B, Kavelaars J.J, Petit J-M, Gwyn SDJ, Shankman CJ, Pike RE |
Journal | ASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL |
Volume | 152 |
Pagination | 111 |
Date Published | NOV |
Type of Article | Article |
ISSN | 0004-6256 |
Mots-clés | astrometry, Kuiper belt: general, methods: data analysis, methods: observational, planets and satellites: detection, Surveys |
Résumé | The trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) preserve evidence of planet building processes in their orbital and size distributions. While all populations show steep size distributions for large objects, a relative deficit of Neptunian trojans and scattering objects with diameters of D < 100 km has been detected. We investigated this deficit with a 32 square degree survey, in which we detected 77 TNOs that are brighter than a limiting r-band magnitude of 24.6. Our plutino sample (18 objects in 3: 2 mean-motion resonance with Neptune) shows a deficit of D < 100 km objects, rejecting a single power-law size distribution at > 99% confidence. Combining our survey with the Canada-France Ecliptic Plane Survey, we perform a detailed analysis of the allowable parameters for the plutino size distribution, including knees and divots. We surmise the existence of 9000 +/- 3000 plutinos with an absolute magnitude of H-r <= 8.66 and 37000(10000)(+12000) with H-r <= 10.0 (95% confidence). Our survey also discovered one temporary Uranian trojan, one temporary Neptunian trojan, and one stable Neptunian trojan, for which we estimate populations of 110(-100)(+500), 210(-200)(+900), and 150(-140)(+600) with H-r <= 10.0, respectively. All three populations are thus less numerous than the main belt asteroids (592 asteroids with H-r <= 10.0). With such population sizes, the temporary Neptunian trojans cannot be previously stable trojans diffusing out of the resonance now; they must be recently captured Centaurs or scattering objects. As the bias against the detection of objects grows with larger semimajor axes, our discovery of three 3:1 resonators and one 4:1 resonator adds to the growing evidence that the high-order resonances are far more populated than is typically predicted. |
DOI | 10.3847/0004-6256/152/5/111 |