Orbital dynamics landscape near the most distant known trans-Neptunian objects
arXiv:2208.02248 · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac866b
Abstract
The most distant known trans-Neptunian objects (perihelion distance above 38 au and semimajor axis above 150 au) are of interest for their potential to reveal past, external, or present but unseen perturbers. Realizing this potential requires understanding how the known planets influence their orbital dynamics. We use a recently-developed Poincare mapping approach for orbital phase space studies of the circular planar restricted three body problem, which we have extended to the case of the three-dimensional restricted problem with planetary perturbers. With this approach, we explore the dynamical landscape of the 23 most distant TNOs under the perturbations of the known giant planets. We find that, counter to common expectations, almost none of these TNOs are far removed from Neptune's resonances. Nearly half (11) of these TNOs have orbits consistent with stable libration in Neptune's resonances; in particular, the orbits of TNOs 148209 and 474640 overlap with Neptune's 20:1 and 36:1 resonances, respectively. Five objects can be ruled currently non-resonant, despite their large orbital uncertainties, because our mapping approach determines the resonance boundaries in angular phase space in addition to semimajor axis. Only three objects are in orbital regions not appreciably affected by resonances: Sedna, 2012 VP113 and 2015 KG163. Our analysis also demonstrates that Neptune's resonances impart a modest (few percent) non-uniformity in the longitude of perihelion distribution of the currently observable distant TNOs. While not large enough to explain the observed clustering, this small dynamical sculpting of the perihelion longitudes could become relevant for future, larger TNO datasets.
arXiv commentaccepted for publication in ApJ
References in corpus (29)
- LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products
- REBOUND: An open-source multi-purpose N-body code for collisional dynamics
- IAS15: A fast, adaptive, high-order integrator for gravitational dynamics, accurate to machine precision over a billion orbits
- WHFast: A fast and unbiased implementation of a symplectic Wisdom-Holman integrator for long term gravitational simulations
- Evidence for a Distant Giant Planet in the Solar System
- The Planet Nine Hypothesis
- Orbit Fitting and Uncertainties for Kuiper Belt Objects
- Sedna and the Oort Cloud Around a Migrating Sun
- Reassessing the formation of the inner Oort cloud in an embedded star cluster
- OSSOS VI. Striking Biases in the detection of large semimajor axis Trans-Neptunian Objects
- Resonance sticking in the scattered disk
- Tracking Neptune's Migration History through High-Perihelion Resonant Trans-Neptunian Objects
- OSSOS. VIII. The Transition Between Two Size Distribution Slopes in the Scattering Disk
- A search of the full six years of the Dark Energy Survey for outer Solar System objects
- Corralling a distant planet with extreme resonant Kuiper belt objects
- A new inclination instability reshapes Keplerian disks into cones: application to the outer Solar System
- OSSOS: V. Diffusion in the orbit of a high-perihelion distant Solar System object
- Consequences of a Distant Massive Planet on the Large Semi-major Axis Trans-Neptunian Objects
- OSSOS: XIII. Fossilized Resonant Dropouts Tentatively Confirm Neptune's Migration was Grainy and Slow
- Testing the isotropy of the Dark Energy Survey's extreme trans-Neptunian objects
- Neptune's resonances in the Scattered Disk
- Trans-Neptunian Objects Transiently Stuck in Neptune's Mean Motion Resonances: Numerical simulations of the current population
- A generalization of the Lagrangian points: studies of resonance for highly eccentric orbits
- Mean motion resonances at high eccentricities: the 2:1 and the 3:2 interior resonances
- The Secular Dynamics of TNOs and Planet Nine Interactions
- Chaotic Dynamics of Trans-Neptunian Objects Perturbed by Planet Nine
- Orbital precession in the distant solar system; further constraining the Planet Nine hypothesis with numerical simulations
- Stability of Neptune's distant resonances in the presence of Planet Nine
- Pluto near the edge of chaos