A Pluto--Charon Concerto II. Formation of a Circumbinary Disk of Debris After the Giant Impact

Abstract

Using a suite of numerical calculations, we consider the long-term evolution of circumbinary debris from the Pluto-Charon giant impact. Initially, these solids have large eccentricity and pericenters near Charon's orbit. On time scales of 100-1000 yr, dynamical interactions with Pluto and Charon lead to the ejection of most solids from the system. As the dynamics moves particles away from the barycenter, collisional damping reduces the orbital eccentricity of many particles. These solids populate a circumbinary disk in the Pluto-Charon orbital plane; a large fraction of this material lies within a `satellite zone' that encompasses the orbits of Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. Compared to the narrow rings generated from the debris of a collision between a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) and Charon, disks produced after the giant impact are much more extended and may be a less promising option for producing small circumbinary satellites.

AJ in press, 28 pages with 2 tables and 11 figures

References in corpus (13)

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• 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
• Orbit determination of the moons of the Pluto-Charon system
• A Pluto--Charon Sonata IV. Improved Constraints on the Dynamical Behavior and Masses of the Small Satellites