The Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS), a wide-field imaging program in 2013-2017 with the CanadaFrance-Hawaii Telescope, surveyed 155 deg 2 of sky to depths of m r = 24.1-25.2. We present 838 outer solar system discoveries that are entirely free of ephemeris bias. This increases the inventory of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) with accurately known orbits by nearly 50%. Each minor planet has 20-60 Gaia/Pan-STARRS-calibrated astrometric measurements made over 2-5 oppositions, which allows accurate classification of their orbits within the trans-Neptunian dynamical populations. The populations orbiting in mean-motion resonance with Neptune are key to understanding Neptune's early migration. Our 313 resonant TNOs, including 132 plutinos, triple the available characterized sample and include new occupancy of distant resonances out to semimajor axis a ∼ 130 au. OSSOS doubles the known population of the nonresonant Kuiper Belt, providing 436 TNOs in this region, all with exceptionally high-quality orbits of a uncertainty σ a 0.1%; they show that the belt exists from a 37 au, with a lower perihelion bound of 35au. We confirm the presence of a concentrated low-inclination a ; 44 au "kernel" population and a dynamically cold population extending beyond the 2:1 resonance. We finely quantify the survey's observational biases. Our survey simulator provides a straightforward way to impose these biases on models of the trans-Neptunian orbit distributions, allowing statistical comparison to the discoveries. The OSSOS TNOs, unprecedented in their orbital precision for the size of the sample, are ideal for testing concepts of the history of giant planet migration in the solar system.
[1] We present an in-depth study of the distribution and escape of molecular hydrogen (H 2 ) on Titan, based on the global average H 2 distribution at altitudes between 1000 and 6000 km, extracted from a large sample of Cassini/Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) measurements. Below Titan's exobase, the observed H 2 distribution can be described by an isothermal diffusion model, with a most probable flux of (1.37 ± 0.01) Â 10 10 cm À2 s À1 , referred to the surface. This is a factor of $3 higher than the Jeans flux of 4.5 Â 10 9 cm À2 s À1 , corresponding to a temperature of 152.5 ± 1.7 K, derived from the background N 2 distribution. The H 2 distribution in Titan's exosphere is modeled with a collisionless approach, with a most probable exobase temperature of 151.2 ± 2.2 K. Kinetic model calculations in the 13-moment approximation indicate a modest temperature decrement of several kelvin for H 2 , as a consequence of the local energy balance between heating/cooling through thermal conduction, viscosity, neutral collision, and adiabatic outflow. The variation of the total energy flux defines an exobase level of $1600 km, where the perturbation of the Maxwellian velocity distribution function, driven primarily by the heat flow, becomes strong enough to raise the H 2 escape flux considerably higher than the Jeans value. Nonthermal processes may not be required to interpret the H 2 escape on Titan. In a more general context, we suggest that the widely used Jeans formula may significantly underestimate the actual thermal escape flux and that a gas kinetic model in the 13-moment approximation provides a better description of thermal escape in planetary atmospheres.Citation: Cui, J., R. V. Yelle, and K. Volk (2008), Distribution and escape of molecular hydrogen in Titan's thermosphere and exosphere,
The short period Jupiter family comets (JFCs) are thought to originate in the Kuiper Belt; specifically, a dynamical subclass of the Kuiper Belt known as the 'scattered disk' is argued to be the dominant source of JFCs. However, the best estimates from observational surveys indicate that this source may fall short by more than two orders of magnitude the estimates obtained from theoretical models of the dynamical evolution of Kuiper belt objects into JFCs. We re-examine the scattered disk as a source of the JFCs and make a rigorous estimate of the discrepancy. We find that the uncertainties in the dynamical models combined with a change in the size distribution function of the scattered disk at faint magnitudes (small sizes) beyond the current observational limit offer a possible but problematic resolution to the discrepancy. We discuss several other possibilities: that the present population of JFCs is a large fluctuation above their long term average, that larger scattered disk objects tidally break-up into multiple fragments during close planetary encounters as their orbits evolve from the trans-Neptune zone to near Jupiter, or that there are alternative source populations that contribute significantly to the JFCs. Well-characterized observational investigations of the Centaurs, objects that are transitioning between the trans-Neptune Kuiper belt region and the inner solar system, can test the predictions of the non-steady state and the tidal break-up hypotheses. The classical and resonant classes of the Kuiper belt are worth re-consideration as significant additional or alternate sources of the JFCs.
The scattering trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) can be measured to smaller sizes than any other distant small-body population. We use the largest sample yet obtained, 68 discoveries, primarily by the Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS), to constrain the slope of its luminosity distribution, with sensitivity to much fainter absolute H-magnitudes than previous work. Using the analysis technique in Shankman et al., we confirm that a single slope for the H-distribution is not an accurate representation of the scattering TNOs and Centaurs, and that a break in the distribution is required, in support of previous conclusions. A bright-end slope of α b =0.9 transitioning to a faintend slope α f of 0.4-0.5 with a differential number contrast c from 1 (a knee) to 10 (a divot) provides an acceptable match to our data. We find that break magnitudes H b of 7.7 and 8.3, values both previously suggested for dynamically hot Kuiper Belt populations, are equally non-rejectable for a range of α f and c in our statistical analysis. Our preferred divot H-distribution transitions to α f =0.5 with a divot of contrast c=3 at H b =8.3, while our preferred knee H-distribution transitions to α f =0.4 at H b =7.7. The intrinsic population of scattering TNOs required to match the OSSOS detections is 3×10 6 for H r <12, and 9×10 4 for H r <8.66 (D100 km), with Centaurs having an intrinsic population two orders of magnitude smaller.
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