A Pluto-Charon Concerto: An Impact on Charon as the Origin of the Small Satellites

Abstract

We consider a scenario where the small satellites of Pluto and Charon grew within a disk of debris from an impact between Charon and a trans-Neptunian Object (TNO). After Charon's orbital motion boosts the debris into a disk-like structure, rapid orbital damping of meter-size or smaller objects is essential to prevent the subsequent re-accretion or dynamical ejection by the binary. From analytical estimates and simulations of disk evolution, we estimate an impactor radius of 30-100 km; smaller (larger) radii apply to an oblique (direct) impact. Although collisions between large TNOs and Charon are unlikely today, they were relatively common within the first 0.1-1 Gyr of the solar system. Compared to models where the small satellites agglomerate in the debris left over by the giant impact that produced the Pluto-Charon binary planet, satellite formation from a later impact on Charon avoids the destabilizing resonances that sweep past the satellites during the early orbital expansion of the binary.

51 pages, 10 figures, 1 table, AJ, in press

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• From Pebbles and Planetesimals to Planets and Dust: the Protoplanetary Disk--Debris Disk Connection
• Past and present dynamics of the circumbinary moons in the Pluto-Charon system
• A Dynamical Systems Approach to the Theory of Circumbinary Orbits in the Circular Restricted Problem
• On the Estimation of Circumbinary Orbital Properties
• A Pluto--Charon Concerto II. Formation of a Circumbinary Disk of Debris After the Giant Impact
• Tidal evolution of the Pluto-Charon binary
• Peculiar orbits and asymmetries in extreme trans-Neptunian space
• Orbit determination of the moons of the Pluto-Charon system
• Orbits of the TOI-1338 and TIC-172900988 systems
• A Pluto--Charon Sonata IV. Improved Constraints on the Dynamical Behavior and Masses of the Small Satellites