Evidence for Two Populations of Classical TNOs: The Strong Inclination Dependence of Binaries

Details Evidence for Two Populations of Classical TNOs: The Strong Inclination Dependence of Binaries Evidence for Two Populations of Classical TNOs: The Strong Inclination Dependence of Binaries

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.6406n&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #64.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.545

Mathematics

Probability

Scientific paper

We have searched for companions of 101 Classical transneptunian objects with the Hubble Space Telescope. Of these, at least 21 are binary. The heliocentric inclinations of the objects we observed range from 0.6-34°. We find a very strong anticorrelation of binaries with inclination.
Of the 58 targets that have inclinations of less than 5.5°, 17 are binary, a binary fraction of 29±7%. All 17 are similar-brightness systems. On the contrary, only 4 of the 42 objects with inclinations greater than 5.5° have satellites and only 1 of these is a similar-brightness binary. The 3 high inclination objects with faint satellites all have low absolute magnitudes, HV < 5, a brightness range for which there are no comparable low-inclination Classicals. Considering only high-inclination Classicals with HV > 5, we find an upper limit to the binary fraction of 10%.
The two-sample K-S test gives a probability of only 0.8% that the cumulative inclination distribution functions of the HV > 5 single and binary Classicals* come from the same parent distributions.
This striking dichotomy appears to agree with other indications (color and inclination distribution) that the low eccentricity, non-resonant Classical transneptunian objects include two overlapping populations with significantly different physical properties and dynamical histories. This observation provides a strong constraint for models of the origin of the Kuiper Belt.
(*For this result, Classicals were defined following the scheme of Gladman et al. 2007).

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