The Color and Binarity of (486958) 2014 MU69 and Other Long-Range New Horizons Kuiper Belt Targets

Abstract

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) measured the colors of eight Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) that will be observed by the New Horizons spacecraft including its 2019 close fly-by target the Cold Classical KBO (486958) 2014 MU69. We find that the photometric colors of all eight objects are red, typical of the Cold Classical dynamical population within which most reside. Because 2014 MU69 has a similar color to that of other KBOs in the Cold Classical region of the Kuiper Belt, it may be possible to use the upcoming high-resolution New Horizons observations of 2014 MU69 to draw conclusions about the greater Cold Classical population. Additionally, HST found none of these KBOs to be binary within separations of ~0.06 arcsec (~2000 km at 44 AU range) and Δm less than or equal to 0.5. This conclusion is consistent with the lower fraction of binaries found at relatively wide separations. A few objects appear to have significant photometric variability, but our observations are not of sufficient signal-to-noise or time duration for further interpretation.

arXiv commentIcarus, In Press

References in corpus (40)

• The Size Distribution of Trans-Neptunian Bodies
• The Canada-France Ecliptic Plane Survey - Full Data Release: The orbital structure of the Kuiper belt
• The Absolute Magnitude Distribution of Kuiper Belt Objects
• "TNOs are Cool": A survey of the trans-Neptunian region X. Analysis of classical Kuiper belt objects from Herschel and Spitzer observations
• OSSOS. VII. 800+ trans-Neptunian objects - the complete data release
• Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager on New Horizons
• Impact Craters on Pluto and Charon Indicate a Deficit of Small Kuiper Belt Objects
• Evidence for Two Populations of Classical Transneptunian Objects: The Strong Inclination Dependence of Classical Binaries
• Retention of a Primordial Cold Classical Kuiper Belt in an Instability-Driven Model of Solar System Formation
• High Albedos of Low Inclination Classical Kuiper Belt Objects
• The Diverse Solar Phase Curves of Distant Icy Bodies. Part I: Photometric Observations of 18 Trans-Neptunian Objects, 7 Centaurs, and Nereid
• The Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 Test of Surfaces in the Outer Solar System: The Compositional Classes of the Kuiper Belt
• Initial Planetesimal Sizes and the Size Distribution of Small Kuiper Belt Objects
• The Correlated Colors of Transneptunian Binaries
• Destruction of Binary Minor Planets During Neptune Scattering
• De-biased Populations of Kuiper Belt Objects from the Deep Ecliptic Survey
• Colours of minor bodies in the outer solar system - II: A statistical analysis revisited
• Reanalyzing the visible colors of Centaurs and KBOs: what is there and what we might be missing
• A Possible Divot in the Size Distribution of the Kuiper Belt's Scattering Objects
• Color-Inclination Relation of the Classical Kuiper Belt Objects
• Observed Binary Fraction Sets Limits on the Extent of Collisional Grinding in the Kuiper Belt
• Is the Missing Ultra-Red Material Colorless Ice?
• Lightcurves of 32 Large Transneptunian Objects
• The New Horizons Kuiper Belt Extended Mission
• High-Precision Orbit Fitting and Uncertainty Analysis of (486958) 2014 MU69
• Inclination Mixing in the Classical Kuiper Belt
• Lightcurves of 20--100 kilometer Kuiper Belt Objects using the Hubble Space Telescope
• The Plutino population: An Abundance of contact binaries
• Binaries in the Kuiper Belt
• Optical and Infrared Colors of Transneptunian Objects Observed with HST
• Trans-Neptunian Objects with Hubble Space Telescope ACS/WFC
• Origin of the peculiar eccentricity distribution of the inner cold Kuiper belt
• The Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 Test of Surfaces in the Outer Solar System: Spectral Variation on Kuiper Belt Objects
• 2011 HM102: Discovery of a High-Inclination L5 Neptune Trojan in the Search for a post-Pluto New Horizons Target
• Forming the Cold Classical Kuiper Belt in a light Disk
• The Diverse Solar Phase Curves of Distant Icy Bodies. II. The Cause of the Opposition Surges and Their Correlations
• The First High-Phase Observations of a KBO: New Horizons Imaging of (15810) 1994 JR1 from the Kuiper Belt
• The HST Lightcurve of (486958) 2014 MU69
• A possible dynamically Cold Classical contact binary: (126719) 2002 CC249
• Great Expectations: Plans and Predictions for New Horizons Encounter with Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69 ('Ultima Thule')

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Photometry of Kuiper Belt Object (486958) Arrokoth from New Horizons LORRI
• Constraining the final merger of contact binary(486958) Arrokoth with soft-sphere discrete element simulations
• Colors of Trans-Neptunian Contact Binaries
• Binary asteroid scattering around white dwarfs
• Trans-Neptunian Space and the Post-Pluto Paradigm