A statistical review of light curves and the prevalence of contact binaries in the Kuiper Belt

Showalter, M. R.; Benecchi, Susan; Grundy, W. M.; Keane, J. T.; Lisse, C. M.; Olkin, C. B.; Porter, S. B.; Robbins, S. J.; Singer, K. N.; Verbiscer, A.; Weaver, Harold A.; Zangari, A. M.; Hamilton, D. P.; Kaufmann, D. E.; Lauer, Tod R.; Mehoke, Douglas S.; Mehoke, Thomas; Spencer, J. R.; Throop, H. B.; Parker, J. Wm.; Stern, S. A.

doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2020.114098

Cited by 14 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 58 publications

(104 reference statements)

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“…We compared our cumulative amplitude distribution with those discussed in Showalter et al (2021). To obtain the cumulative amplitude distribution curve of our K2 sample, we considered both the targets with detected periods and welldetermined amplitudes and those that only have amplitude upper limits (see Figure 4).…”

Section: Amplitude Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the same figure, we also plot the "Combined," "Centaur," and "OSSOS" curves from Showalter et al (2021), which mostly use ground-based data. We also plot the original cumulative amplitude curve derived by the Thousand Asteroid Light Curve Survey (Masiero et al 2009) to cover the main belt asteroids.…”

Section: Amplitude Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite almost three decades of observations, the number of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) with known rotational properties-at least rotation period and light-curve amplitude-is still rather low. While amplitude estimates exist for a larger number of objects (see, e.g., Showalter et al 2021), the latest version of the light-curve database (LCDB; Warner et al 2009) contains only 124 TNOs with known rotation periods. In many cases, even these periods are not very reliable, and different authors derive different solutions based on their own data (see, e.g., Sheppard et al 2008;Duffard et al 2009;Thirouin et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Light Curves of Trans-Neptunian Objects from the K2 Mission of the Kepler Space Telescope

Kecskeméthy

Kiss

Szakáts

et al. 2023

ApJS

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The K2 mission of the Kepler Space Telescope allowed the observations of light curves of small solar system bodies throughout the whole solar system. In this paper, we present the results of a collection of K2 trans-Neptunian object observations between campaigns C03 (2014 November–2015 February) and C19 (2018 August–September), which includes 66 targets. Due to the faintness of our targets, the detectability rate of a light-curve period is ∼56%, notably lower than in the case of other small-body populations, like Hildas or Jovian Trojans. We managed to obtain light-curve periods with an acceptable confidence for 37 targets; the majority of these cases are new identifications. We were able to give light-curve amplitude upper limits for the other 29 targets. Several of the newly detected light-curve periods are longer than ∼24 hr, in many cases close to ∼80 hr; i.e., these targets are slow rotators. This relative abundance of slowly rotating objects is similar to that observed among Hildas, Jovian Trojans, and Centaurs in the K2 mission, as well as among main belt asteroids measured with the TESS space telescope. Trans-Neptunian objects show notably higher light-curve amplitudes at large (D ≳ 300 km) sizes than found among large main belt asteroids, in contrast to the general expectation that due to their lower compressive strength, they reach hydrostatic equilibrium at smaller sizes than their inner solar system counterparts.

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Section: Amplitude Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Amplitude Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Light Curves of Trans-Neptunian Objects from the K2 Mission of the Kepler Space Telescope

Kecskeméthy

Kiss

Szakáts

et al. 2023

ApJS

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“…For example, the New Horizons spacecraft revealed that Arrokoth is a contact binary, which likely resulted from a low-speed merger of two flattened, spheroidal components (Stern et al 2019). Additionally, light curve observations of TNOs indicate that the contact binary fraction can be 30% or higher (Sheppard and Jewitt 2004;Thirouin and Sheppard 2018, 2019Noll et al 2020;Showalter et al 2021).…”

Section: Morphological Evolution and Tno Binaries In Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Transition from the Kuiper Belt to the Jupiter-Family (Comets)

Fraser¹,

Dones²,

Volk³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Kuiper Belt Objects, or more generally Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), are planetesimals found beyond the orbit of Neptune. Some TNOs evolve onto Neptune-crossing orbits and become Centaurs. Many Centaurs, in turn, reach Jupiter-crossing orbits and become Jupiterfamily comets (JFCs). TNOs are the main source of the JFCs. TNOs offer a different window than the JFCs, of more primordial bodies and over a different size and temperature range. It is in that context that this chapter is written. Here we discuss the dynamical pathways taken from the trans-Neptunian region to the JFCs, and the most important properties of TNOs that relate to the JFC population, including considerations of their origins, compositions, morphologies, and size distributions. We relate these properties to the JFCs whenever possible. We reflect on a few key outstanding issues regarding our incomplete knowledge of TNOs as they pertain to the Centaurs and JFC populations. We finish with a short discussion of notable new and upcoming facilities and the impacts they will have regarding these outstanding questions.

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“…This introduces a fairly wide dispersion in the phase curve, as shown in Figure 2. For this work, to achieve some consistency given this issue, we have chosen the mean value of the magnitude in cases where there was more than one observation per day (Showalter et al 2020).…”

Section: Gaia Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

The determination of asteroid H and G phase function parameters using GAIA DR2

Colazo,

Duffard,

Weidmann

2021

Preprint

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The Gaia mission will provide the scientific community with high-quality observations of asteroids of all categories. The second release of Gaia data (DR2) was published in 2018 and consisted of 22 months of observations of 14,099 known Solar System objects, mainly asteroids. The purpose of this work is to obtain a catalogue of phase function parameters (H and G) for all the asteroids that are observed by the Gaia mission, and which were published in DR2. For this purpose, we introduced an algorithm capable of building this catalogue from the magnitude and UTC epoch data present in the DR2 database. Since Gaia will never observe asteroids with a phase angle of 0 • (corresponding with the opposition), but with phase angles higher than 10 • , we added data from ground observations (corresponding to small phase angles) and thus improved the determination of the 𝐻 and 𝐺 parameters of the phase function. In this case, we also build a catalogue of the parameters of the H, G 1 , G 2 phase function. We compared our results of the 𝐻, 𝐺 function with those of the Astorb database and observed that the level of agreement is satisfactory.

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A statistical review of light curves and the prevalence of contact binaries in the Kuiper Belt

Cited by 14 publications

References 58 publications

Light Curves of Trans-Neptunian Objects from the K2 Mission of the Kepler Space Telescope

Light Curves of Trans-Neptunian Objects from the K2 Mission of the Kepler Space Telescope

The Transition from the Kuiper Belt to the Jupiter-Family (Comets)

The determination of asteroid H and G phase function parameters using GAIA DR2

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