A Survey for Extreme Mass-Ratio Binaries of Faint Kuiper Belt Objects

Details A Survey for Extreme Mass-Ratio Binaries of Faint Kuiper Belt Objects A Survey for Extreme Mass-Ratio Binaries of Faint Kuiper Belt Objects

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.5207b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #52.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.518

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We will present the results of a survey for extreme mass-ratio binaries of faint Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) with the Magellan Clay Telescope. It has recently been discovered that perhaps the majority of large KBOs have satellites with very small mass ratios of order 1% (Brown 2005, 2006, Weaver 2006}. Three out of the four largest known KBOs have faint satellites (Pluto, 2003 EL61, and 2003 UB313). Pluto actually has three satellites (Weaver 2006), two of which are 2000 times fainter than Pluto. These satellites resemble the two small companions to 2003 EL61 and the single companion to 2003 UB313. Roughly 10% of faint, 100 km-class KBOs are also in binaries. However, these binaries are dissimilar to those found around large KBOs in that they have nearly equal flux ratios, eccentric binary orbits, and have large separations in comparison to their diameters. While the origin of companions to the large KBOs is likely fragmentational collisions, this mechanism cannot produce such KBO binaries (Stern 2002). Unfortunately, most surveys for companions to faint KBOs have generally not had the sensitivity to detect small satellites with extreme flux ratios. Therefore, it is unknown whether the population of small mass ratio companions found around the large KBOs has a analogue in the smaller KBO population. There is therefore a need for a homogeneous survey of faint KBOs that has the sensitivity to detect very faint companions. Measuring the ensemble frequency and properties of small mass ratio companions around faint KBO primaries should elucidate the origin of KBO binaries, which in turn will provide important clues to the dynamic and collisional history of the Kuiper Belt in general.

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