Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Oct 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.4912m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #49.12; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.511
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) accreted from a mélange of ices, carbonaceous matter, and rock of mixed interstellar and solar nebular provenance. The transneptunian region, where this accretion took place, was likely more radially compact than today. This and the influence of gas drag during the solar nebula epoch argue for more rapid KBO accretion than usually considered. Early evolution of KBOs was largely the result of radiogenic heating, with both short-term and long-term contributions being potentially important. Depending on rock content and porous conductivity, KBO interiors may have reached relatively high temperatures. Models suggest that KBOs likely lost very volatile ices during early evolution, whereas less volatile ices should be retained in cold, less altered subsurface layers; initially amorphous ice may have crystallized in the interior as well, releasing trapped volatiles. Generally, KBOs should be stratified in terms of composition and porosity, albeit subject to impact disruption and collisional stripping. KBOs are thus unlikely to be "the most pristine objects in the Solar System.” Large (dwarf planet) KBOs may be fully differentiated. KBO surface color and compositional classes are usually discussed in terms of "nature vs. nurture,” i.e., a generic primordial composition vs. surface processing, but the true nature of KBOs also depends on how they have evolved. The broad range of albedos now found in the Kuiper belt, deep water-ice absorptions on some objects, evidence for differentiation of Pluto and 2003 EL61, and a range of densities incompatible with a single, primordial composition and variable porosity strongly imply significant, intrinsic compositional differences among KBOs. The interplay of formation zone (accretion rate), body size, and dynamical (collisional) history may yield KBO compositional classes (and their spectral correlates) that recall the different classes of asteroids in the inner Solar System, but whose members are broadly distributed among the KBO dynamical subpopulations.
Alan Stern S.
McKinnon William B.
Prialnik Dina
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