The differing magnitude distributions of the two Jupiter Trojan color populations

Abstract

The Jupiter Trojans are a significant population of minor bodies in the middle Solar System that have garnered substantial interest in recent years. Several spectroscopic studies of these objects have revealed notable bimodalities with respect to near-infrared spectra, infrared albedo, and color, which suggest the existence of two distinct groups among the Trojan population. In this paper, we analyze the magnitude distributions of these two groups, which we refer to as the red and less red color populations. By compiling spectral and photometric data from several previous works, we show that the observed bimodalities are self-consistent and categorize 221 of the 842 Trojans with absolute magnitudes in the range H<12.3 into the two color populations. We demonstrate that the magnitude distributions of the two color populations are distinct to a high confidence level (>95%) and fit them individually to a broken power law, with special attention given to evaluating and correcting for incompleteness in the Trojan catalog as well as incompleteness in our categorization of objects. A comparison of the best-fit curves shows that the faint-end power-law slopes are markedly different for the two color populations, which indicates that the red and less red Trojans likely formed in different locations. We propose a few hypotheses for the origin and evolution of the Trojan population based on the analyzed data.

arXiv commentPublished in AJ; 26 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (16)

• Solar System Objects Observed in the SDSS Commissioning Data
• The taxonomic distribution of asteroids from multi-filter all-sky photometric surveys
• Statistical Study of the Early Solar System's Instability with 4, 5 and 6 Giant Planets
• Population and Size Distribution of Small Jovian Trojan Asteroids
• Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of Trojan Asteroids: Evidence for Two Compositional Groups
• WISE/NEOWISE Observations of the Jovian Trojan Population: Taxonomy
• Visible spectroscopic and photometric survey of Jupiter Trojans: final results on dynamical families
• The Kuiper Belt Luminosity Function from m(R)=21 to 26
• The Properties of Jovian Trojan Asteroids Listed in SDSS Moving Object Catalog 3
• A hypothesis for the color diversity of the Kuiper belt
• The Bimodal Colors of Centaurs and Small Kuiper Belt Objects
• Taxonomy of asteroid families among the Jupiter Trojans: Comparison between spectroscopic data and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey colors
• Albedos of Small Jovian Trojans
• Eurybates - the only asteroid family among Trojans?
• Collisions, Cosmic Radiation and the Colors of the Trojan Asteroids
• Physical and orbital properties of the Trojan asteroids

Cited by in corpus (29)

• Dynamical Evolution of the Early Solar System
• Asteroid (469219) 2016 HO3, the smallest and closest Earth quasi-satellite
• A hypothesis for the color bimodality of Jupiter Trojans
• The bimodal color distribution of small Kuiper Belt objects
• The color-magnitude distribution of small Jupiter Trojans
• JWST near-infrared spectroscopy of the Lucy Jupiter Trojan flyby targets: Evidence for OH absorption, aliphatic organics, and CO${}_2$
• The heart of the swarm: K2 photometry and rotational characteristics of 56 Jovian Trojan asteroids
• Small Jupiter Trojans Survey with Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam
• The 3-4 $\mu$m Spectra of Jupiter Trojan Asteroids
• KIC 8462852: Will the Trojans return in 2021?
• Observation of Two New L4 Neptune Trojans in the Dark Energy Survey Supernova Fields
• Origin and Evolution of Jupiter's Trojan Asteroids
• Visible Analysis of NASA Lucy Mission Targets Eurybates, Polymele, Orus and Donaldjohanson
• Implications for the collisional strength of Jupiter Trojans from the Eurybates family
• Rotational properties of Hilda asteroids observed by the K2 mission
• Hubble Ultraviolet Spectroscopy of Jupiter Trojans
• The color-magnitude distribution of Hilda asteroids: Comparison with Jupiter Trojans
• Influence of the Yarkovsky force on Jupiter Trojan asteroids
• Investigating the stability of mass transfer in neutron star-helium white dwarf binaries
• The Distribution of Highly Red-sloped Asteroids in the Middle and Outer Main Belt
• Keck, Gemini, and Palomar 200-inch visible photometry of red and very-red Neptunian Trojans
• $0.7-2.5\mu$m spectra of Hilda asteroids
• Size Distribution of Small Jupiter Trojans in the L5 Swarm
• JWST Near Infrared Spectroscopy of High Albedo Jupiter Trojans: A New Surface Type in the Trojan Belt
• Multiband photometry of a Patroclus-Menoetius mutual event: Constraints on surface heterogeneity
• Photometric Confirmation and Characterization of the Ennomos Collisional Family in the Jupiter Trojans
• Ultraviolet Spectroscopy of Lucy Mission Targets with the Hubble Space Telescope
• Colors of Centaurs observed by the Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam and implications for their origin
• Evidence of Possible Spectral Variability in the Patroclus-Menoetius Binary System