The eccentricity and inclination of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) decrease significantly as radius of perihelion increases. Also, the percentage of TNOs in almost circular orbits with low inclinations increases dramatically with perihelion distance. These unusual distributions presented here cannot be explained by observational bias or the poorly determined orbits in the Kuiper belt. Instead, they may provide evidence about the origin of TNOs. Most theories are also unable to explain these strange orbital distributions. However, if TNOs passed close to Neptune because they migrated relatively quickly away from the Sun, their eccentricities and inclinations should both be inversely related to perihelion distance as shown. This TNO-migration theory can also help explain the origin of trans-Neptunian binaries (TNBs), and it accurately predicts the relationships between TNBs’ separation distances and their heliocentric perihelia, eccentricities, and inclinations.
| Published in | International Journal of Astrophysics and Space Science (Volume 6, Issue 1) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ijass.20180601.13 |
| Page(s) | 28-37 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2018. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Trans-Neptunian Objects, Trans-Neptunian Binaries, Kuiper Belt
| [1] | W. M. Grundy et al., unpublished. http://www2.lowell.edu/~grundy/tnbs/. |
| [2] | "Five new and three improved mutual orbits of transneptunian binaries,” Icarus, Vol. 213, No. 2, pp. 678-692 (2011). |
| [3] | A. H. Parker et al., “Characterization of seven ultra-wide trans-neptunian binaries,” ApJ, Vol. 743, No. 1, p. 1 (2011). |
| [4] | A. H. Parker and J. J. Kavelaars, “Collisional evolution of ultra-wide trans-Neptunian binaries,” ApJ, Vol. 744, No. 2, p. 139 (2011). |
| [5] | M. D. Lemonick, “Pluto and beyond.” Sci. Am., Vol. 311, No. 5, p. 46 (2014). |
| [6] | P. Goldreich and Y. Lithwick, “Formation of Kuiper-belt binaries by dynamical friction and three-body encounters,” Nature, Vol. 420, No. 6916, pp. 643-646 (2002). |
| [7] | S. J. Weidenschilling, “On the origin of binary transneptunian objects,” Icarus, Vol. 160, No. 1, pp. 212-215 (2002). |
| [8] | R. Malhotra, “The origin of Pluto's peculiar orbit,” Nature, Vol. 365, No. 6449, p. 819 (1993). |
| [9] | M. J. Duncan, H. F. Levison, and S. M. Budd, “The dynamical structure of the Kuiper belt,” AJ, Vol. 110, p. 3073 (1995). |
| [10] | Q. Yu and S. Tremaine, “The dynamics of Plutinos,” AJ, Vol. 118, No. 4, p. 1873 (1999). |
| [11] | E. I. Chiang and A. B. Jordan, “On the Plutinos and Twotinos of the Kuiper belt,” AJ, Vol. 124, No. 6, p. 3430 (2002). |
| [12] | H. F. Levison and A. Morbidelli, “The formation of the Kuiper belt by the outward transport of bodies during Neptune's migration,” Nature, Vol. 426, No. 6965 pp. 419-421 (2003). |
| [13] | J. M. Hahn and R. Malhotra, “Neptune’s migration into a stirred-up Kuiper belt: A detailed comparison of simulations to observations,” AJ, Vol. 130, No. 5, p. 2392 (2005). |
| [14] | H. F. Levison, A. Morbidelli, C. VanLaerhoven, R. Gomes, and K. Tsiganis, “Origin of the structure of the Kuiper belt during a dynamical instability in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune,” Icarus, Vol. 196, No. 1, pp. 258-273 (2008). |
| [15] | J. L. Margot, “Astronomy: Worlds of mutual motion,” Nature, Vol. 416, No. 6882, pp. 694-695 (2002). |
| [16] | J. M. Petit et al., “The extreme Kuiper belt binary 2001 QW322,” Science, Vol. 322, No. 5900, pp. 432-434 (2008). |
| [17] | J. M. Petit et al., “The Canada-France Ecliptic Plane Survey—full data release: the orbital structure of the Kuiper belt,” AJ, Vol. 142, No. 4, p. 131 (2011). |
| [18] | A. Morbidelli, H. S. Gaspar, and D. Nesvorny, “Origin of the peculiar eccentricity distribution of the inner cold Kuiper belt,” Icarus, Vol. 232, pp. 81-87 (2014). |
| [19] | R. B. Brown and J. A. Firth, “Analysis of trans-Neptunian objects and a proposed theory to explain their origin,” MNRAS, Vol. 456, No. 2, pp. 1587-1594 (2015). |
APA Style
Robert B. Brown. (2018). Unusual Eccentricity and Inclination Distributions of Trans-Neptunian Objects and Trans-Neptunian Binaries. International Journal of Astrophysics and Space Science, 6(1), 28-37. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijass.20180601.13
ACS Style
Robert B. Brown. Unusual Eccentricity and Inclination Distributions of Trans-Neptunian Objects and Trans-Neptunian Binaries. Int. J. Astrophys. Space Sci. 2018, 6(1), 28-37. doi: 10.11648/j.ijass.20180601.13
AMA Style
Robert B. Brown. Unusual Eccentricity and Inclination Distributions of Trans-Neptunian Objects and Trans-Neptunian Binaries. Int J Astrophys Space Sci. 2018;6(1):28-37. doi: 10.11648/j.ijass.20180601.13
Share This Article
Twitter
Linked In
Facebook
Copy
Download@article{10.11648/j.ijass.20180601.13,
author = {Robert B. Brown},
title = {Unusual Eccentricity and Inclination Distributions of Trans-Neptunian Objects and Trans-Neptunian Binaries},
journal = {International Journal of Astrophysics and Space Science},
volume = {6},
number = {1},
pages = {28-37},
doi = {10.11648/j.ijass.20180601.13},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijass.20180601.13},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijass.20180601.13},
abstract = {The eccentricity and inclination of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) decrease significantly as radius of perihelion increases. Also, the percentage of TNOs in almost circular orbits with low inclinations increases dramatically with perihelion distance. These unusual distributions presented here cannot be explained by observational bias or the poorly determined orbits in the Kuiper belt. Instead, they may provide evidence about the origin of TNOs. Most theories are also unable to explain these strange orbital distributions. However, if TNOs passed close to Neptune because they migrated relatively quickly away from the Sun, their eccentricities and inclinations should both be inversely related to perihelion distance as shown. This TNO-migration theory can also help explain the origin of trans-Neptunian binaries (TNBs), and it accurately predicts the relationships between TNBs’ separation distances and their heliocentric perihelia, eccentricities, and inclinations.},
year = {2018}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Unusual Eccentricity and Inclination Distributions of Trans-Neptunian Objects and Trans-Neptunian Binaries AU - Robert B. Brown Y1 - 2018/02/26 PY - 2018 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijass.20180601.13 DO - 10.11648/j.ijass.20180601.13 T2 - International Journal of Astrophysics and Space Science JF - International Journal of Astrophysics and Space Science JO - International Journal of Astrophysics and Space Science SP - 28 EP - 37 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2376-7022 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijass.20180601.13 AB - The eccentricity and inclination of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) decrease significantly as radius of perihelion increases. Also, the percentage of TNOs in almost circular orbits with low inclinations increases dramatically with perihelion distance. These unusual distributions presented here cannot be explained by observational bias or the poorly determined orbits in the Kuiper belt. Instead, they may provide evidence about the origin of TNOs. Most theories are also unable to explain these strange orbital distributions. However, if TNOs passed close to Neptune because they migrated relatively quickly away from the Sun, their eccentricities and inclinations should both be inversely related to perihelion distance as shown. This TNO-migration theory can also help explain the origin of trans-Neptunian binaries (TNBs), and it accurately predicts the relationships between TNBs’ separation distances and their heliocentric perihelia, eccentricities, and inclinations. VL - 6 IS - 1 ER -
Email: