Weighing KBOs: Characterizing Kuiper Belt Binaries

Details Weighing KBOs: Characterizing Kuiper Belt Binaries Weighing KBOs: Characterizing Kuiper Belt Binaries

Feb 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009noao.prop..236p&link_type=abstract

NOAO Proposal ID #2009A-0236

Physics

Scientific paper

Long period Kuiper Belt binaries - being difficult to create and very sensitive to perturbation - yield unique insight into the physical properties of these distant comets as well as probing the dynamical and collisional conditions over the history of the outer Solar System. The orbital, compositional and statistical properties of these binaries constrain the total mass and dynamical history of the various populations, with important implications for theories of Solar System formation. Here we propose an observational campaign to track and characterize the mutual orbits of all known wide-separation, equal-sized Kuiper Belt Binary systems that have poorly constrained orbits. Accurately measuring the orbits of binary systems with a series of high-SN optical (GMOS) observations allows determination of mass and system angular momentum, which provide constraints on formation mechanisms.

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