Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2004
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004dda....35.0207s&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DDA meeting #35, #02.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 36, p.851
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The discovery of the large (H=1.7) distant object, 2003 VB12, aka Sedna (Brown, Trujillo, and Rabinowitz 2004), is exciting on several grounds, not the least of which are the implications of its large size (D 2000 km) and distant, excited orbit (q 76 AU, a 532 AU, i 12 deg, e 0.86). Sedna's highly eccentric orbit clearly suggests it has been severely dynamically disturbed since its accretion, which must have occurred with e 0 and i 0. Early commentary on Sedna's origin (e.g., Brown et al., 2004; Morbidelli & Levison 2004) has centered on a formation location at <50 AU, with transport to the present orbit having resulted from a strong scattering event by a massive planet or a nearby star. Here I examine the viability of an alternate, in situ accretion (e.g., near 76 or 500 AU, Sedna's q and a) scenario, which would have been followed by dynamical evolution to the present orbit. Consider first a ``primordial formation" scenario taking 100-300 Myr, consistent with current accretion model results in the Kuiper Belt (e.g., Stern & Colwell 1997; Kenyon 2002). Doing so, we estimate that as little as 10 Earth masses of solids could have been required in a disk stretching from 70 to 100 AU region to produce Sedna-scale objects. If however Sedna formed in a very wide disk extending from 70 to 500 AU, then a significantly less plausible outer disk mass of 80-240 Earth masses in solids is implied. The implications of these results, which would require a more extended and massive Kuiper Disk, reminiscent of some broad extrasolar disks 100s of AU in extent, will be discussed.
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