| |
 |
| Paper: |
On the Inclination Distribution of Intrinsic Neptune Trojans |
| Volume: |
513, Serendipities in the Solar System and Beyond |
| Page: |
57 |
| Authors: |
Lin, H.-W. |
| Abstract: |
Currently, 17 Neptune Trojans (NTs), the minor planets in co-orbital 1:1 mean motion resonance with Neptune, have been found. The wide orbital inclination distribution of NTs seems to imply an unusual formation/capture mechanism for NTs; the NT have to be captured from a pre-excited planetesimal disk. However, the recent study result of primordial NT inclination distribution by Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1, Lin et al. (2016)) observed a relativity low inclination distribution. Considering the limiting magnitude of PS1 is ∼ 22.5, the PS1 samples have absolute magnitude (H) range from 7.0 to 8.0. Therefore, the PS1 NTs are relatively larger than the samples of other surveys, which have H greater than 8.0. Is this result implies that the larger NTs have a dynamically colder inclination distribution compared with physically smaller NTs (where the separation or large/small appears to be around H sim 8, which corresponds to a diameter of 150 km)? After debiasing the PS1 survey, we still do not have statistical significant evidence to claim that the PS1 sample must have lower inclination distribution then the previous discovered NTs. The other large scale outer solar system surveys that have deeper survey depth, such as OSSOS and DES, will provide the evidences to answer the question. |
|
|
|
|
|
