THE RESONANT TRANS-NEPTUNIAN POPULATIONS
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, 6224 Agricultural Road, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 (Canada)
- Institut UTINAM, CNRS-UMR 6213, Observatoire de Besancon, BP 1615, 25010 Besancon Cedex (France)
- Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, National Research Council of Canada, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7 (Canada)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States)
- Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut Street, Suite 300, Boulder, CO 80302 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 (United States)
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
The trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) trapped in mean-motion resonances with Neptune were likely emplaced there during planet migration late in the giant-planet formation process. We perform detailed modeling of the resonant objects detected in the Canada-France Ecliptic Plane Survey (CFEPS) in order to provide population estimates and, for some resonances, constrain the complex internal orbital element distribution. Detection biases play a critical role because phase relationships with Neptune make object discovery more likely at certain longitudes. This paper discusses the 3:2, 5:2, 2:1, 3:1, 5:1, 4:3, 5:3, 7:3, 5:4, and 7:4 mean-motion resonances, all of which had CFEPS detections, along with our upper limit on 1:1 Neptune Trojans (which is consistent with their small population estimated elsewhere). For the plutinos (TNOs in the 3:2 resonance) we refine the orbital element distribution given by Kavelaars et al. in 2009 and show that steep H-magnitude distributions (N(H){proportional_to}10{sup {alpha}H}, with {alpha} = 0.8-0.9) are favored in the range H{sub g} = 8-9, and confirm that this resonance does not share the inclination distribution of the classical Kuiper Belt. We give the first population estimate for the 5:2 resonance and find that, to within the uncertainties, the population is equal to that of the 3:2 ({approx_equal}13,000 TNOs with H{sub g} < 9.16), whereas the 2:1 population is smaller by a factor of 3-4 compared to the other two resonances. We also measure significant populations inhabiting the 4:3, 5:3, 7:3, 5:4, 7:4, 3:1, and 5:1 resonances, with H{sub g} < 9.16 (D > 100 km) populations in the thousands. We compare our intrinsic population and orbital element distributions with several published models of resonant-TNO production; the most striking discrepancy is that resonances beyond the 2:1 are in reality more heavily populated than in published models.
- OSTI ID:
- 22034416
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Journal Name: Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online) Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 144; ISSN 1538-3881
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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