A New Hubble Space Telescope Survey of Mutual Orbits, Masses, and Colors of Transneptunian Binaries

Details A New Hubble Space Telescope Survey of Mutual Orbits, Masses, and Colors of Transneptunian Binaries A New Hubble Space Telescope Survey of Mutual Orbits, Masses, and Colors of Transneptunian Binaries

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.5210g&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #52.10; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.518

Statistics

Scientific paper

We report on a new, large Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Cycle 16 survey of known transneptunian binaries (TNBs) to determine the mutual orbits of more than 20. Our goal is to use the statistical characteristics of TNB mutual orbits to probe their formation conditions and subsequent dynamical history. Different formation scenarios could have left distinct, observable patterns in the statistics of binary abundance versus separation, eccentricity, primary-secondary size ratio, orbit orientation, etc. Post-formation tidal interactions, impacts, and close encounters can also alter orbits over time, leaving telltale traces on the ensemble population. Accordingly, we want to see what patterns emerge from tripling the sample of TNB mutual orbits. We also want to find out which TNB pairs have mismatched colors, another valuable constraint on how they formed. Additional benefits of this observational program include its potential to identify systems likely to experience mutual events in the near future, offering opportunities for additional studies. The system masses revealed by the mutual orbits can also be combined with independent size estimates from Spitzer Space Telescope or stellar occultations to reveal bulk densities.
With its extremely stable PSF and dark background, HST is the premier facility for resolving the very faint and close TNB pairs. About a third of the planned observations will have occurred by the time of the meeting. We will present results from that subset and also discuss the full target sample and our observing and analysis strategies.
Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA HST, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), which is operated by the AURA under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with program #11178 which was supported by NASA through a grant from STScI.

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