Colors of TNO Binaries and Evidence for a Triple System from HST Observations

Details Colors of TNO Binaries and Evidence for a Triple System from HST Observations Colors of TNO Binaries and Evidence for a Triple System from HST Observations

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.5211j&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #52.11; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.519

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Scientific paper

We present color information for five binary Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) imaged by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in the F606W and F814W filters from 2003 to 2006. The five binaries (1997 CQ29, 1998 SM165, 1999 TC36, 2000 CF105, and 2001 QC298) are dynamically different (pericenter distances from 30 to 42 AU) with diverse color indices (HST broad V-I from 0.320 to 1.024 mag), yet for a given object the primary and secondary color indices are always within 0.1 mag of each other. This implies similar surface composition or weathering.
We also present evidence that the primary of (47171) 1999 TC36 may itself be binary, implying a hierarchical triple system. Inspection of the primary after correcting for geometric distortions in the ACS camera revealed an elongated primary with ellipticity 0.18 ± 0.03 at a wide range of position angles. The primary should resolve as a point source due to the distance to 1999 TC36 and the restricted size of the primary from the system mass [1]. However the point spread function (PSF) fitting reveals that a single point source for the primary does not adequately fit the data. An F-test shows that, with 99% confidence, the data require two PSF components in order to properly model the primary. A triple configuration has also been independently hypothesized due to the unexpectedly low density of 1999 TC36 [2].
[1] J. L. Margot et al., BAAS, 36, 2004.
[2] J. A. Stansberry et al., ApJ, 643, 2006.

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