Close TNO Passages as a Driver of the Origin and Evolution of Ultra-Wide Kuiper Belt Binaries

Abstract

Within the dynamically cold low inclination portion of the Classical Kuiper Belt, there exists a population of weakly bound binary systems with a number of unusual properties; most notable of which is their extremely wide orbital separations; beyond 7% of their Hill radii. The stability and evolution of these Ultra-Wide Trans-Neptunian Binaries (TNBs) have, in the past, been studied extensively under the assumption that the primary evolving mechanisms are interactions between the binary components and impacting Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs). Here, we instead study their evolution as driven by the gravitational perturbations of close passing but non-impacting TNOs. By simulating these passages, we show that the aggregate effects of encounters over billions of years have a significant effect on Kuiper Belt binary evolution. Such processes can lead to tight binaries widening significantly over time, approaching and sometimes surpassing the separation of the widest known TNBs. We also find that the eccentricity and inclination distributions of observed Ultra-Wide TNBs can be sampled from such widened binaries. While we are unable to produce enough wide binaries to explain their abundance, the orbital properties of ones we do produce are consistent with known wide binaries.

References in corpus (20)

• Streaming Instabilities in Protoplanetary Disks
• The Canada-France Ecliptic Plane Survey - Full Data Release: The orbital structure of the Kuiper belt
• Formation of Kuiper Belt Binaries by Gravitational Collapse
• 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
• The Resonant Transneptunian Populations
• Evidence for Two Populations of Classical Transneptunian Objects: The Strong Inclination Dependence of Classical Binaries
• Kozai cycles, tidal friction and the dynamical evolution of binary minor planets
• An Automatic Method for Extreme-Ultraviolet Dimmings Associated with Small-Scale Eruption
• Characterization of Seven Ultra-Wide Trans-Neptunian Binaries
• All planetesimals born near the Kuiper Belt formed as binaries
• Unbiased Inclination Distributions for Objects in the Kuiper Belt
• OSSOS. VIII. The Transition Between Two Size Distribution Slopes in the Scattering Disk
• KCTF Evolution of Trans-Neptunian Binaries: Connecting Formation to Observation
• Collisional Evolution of Ultra-Wide Trans-Neptunian Binaries
• Trans-Neptunian binaries (2018)
• Collision Probabilities in the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt
• Photometry of Kuiper Belt Object (486958) Arrokoth from New Horizons LORRI
• On the Detection of Two New Transneptunian Binaries from the CFEPS Kuiper Belt Survey
• OSSOS finds an Exponential Cutoff in the Size Distribution of the Cold Classical Kuiper belt

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Beyond Point Masses. II. Non-Keplerian Shape Effects are Detectable in Several TNO Binaries
• A Non-Primordial Origin for the Widest Binaries in the Kuiper Belt
• Gravitational disturbance on asteroidal ring systems by close encounter with a small object
• Considering contact forces during the formation of planetesimals by gravitational collapse: mutual orbits, spin states, and shapes