2016AJ....152..111A -
Astron. J., 152, 111-111 (2016/November-0)
A carefully characterized and tracked trans-Neptunian survey: the size distribution of the plutinos and the number of Neptunian trojans.
ALEXANDERSEN M., GLADMAN B., KAVELAARS J.J., PETIT J.-M., GWYN S.D.J., SHANKMAN C.J. and PIKE R.E.
Abstract (from CDS):
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 Hr <= 8.66 and 37000–10000+12000 with Hr <= 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 Hr <= 10.0, respectively. All three populations are thus less numerous than the main belt asteroids (592 asteroids with Hr <= 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.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Journal keyword(s):
astrometry - Kuiper belt: general - methods: data analysis - methods: observational - planets and satellites: detection - surveys - surveys
VizieR on-line data:
<Available at CDS (J/AJ/152/111): table3.dat>
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