Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufm.p13c0179n&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #P13C-0179
Physics
5205 Formation Of Stars And Planets, 6206 Asteroids: Satellites, 6224 Kuiper Belt Objects, 6285 Trans-Neptunian Objects
Scientific paper
The discovery of two small satellites of the Pluto-Charon binary (Weaver et al. 2006, Nature 439, 943) clearly demonstrates that complex multiples can and do exist among the population of transneptunian objects. The discovery of a second companion to the main belt asteroid (87) Sylvia establishes the same existence proof for the inner solar system (Marchis et al. 2005, Nature 436, 822). The mode of formation for binaries and multiples remains to be unambiguously identified for any small body population in the solar system. Collisional models of binary formation show that some fraction of triples and higher order multiples can be expected to form as a natural consequence of chance capture of impact debris (Leinhardt and Richardson 2005, Icarus 176, 432). However, these models cannot be used to accurately predict the fraction of such systems in the absence of observational constraints. Likewise, capture models can, in principle, produce multiples, but quantitative work on this question has not been done. The large survey that we are carrying out with the Hubble Space Telescope is providing the most stringent observational constraints on the frequencies of binaries and higher order multiples to date. Of the roughly 20 binaries observed with the ACS/HRC, none has been found to have a third companion. The limits vary with the observations, but, generally speaking, most of the observations search several magnitudes fainter than the primary at separations of 50 milliarcsec or more. Future observations with HST have the capability to increase this limit by an order of magnitude by increasing the sample of known binaries.
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