Detection of Six Transneptunian Binaries with NICMOS: A High Fraction of Binaries in the Cold Classical Disk

Abstract

We have analyzed a homogeneous set of observations of eighty-one transneptunian objects obtained with the NIC2 camera on the Hubble Space Telescope with the goal of identifying partially resolved binaries. Using PSF-fitting we have identified six likely binaries in addition to the three new binaries already found in this data set. We find that 11% of transneptunian objects are binaries at separation and brightness limits of the NIC2 camera. The identification of these new binaries significantly increases the known lower limit to the binary fraction among transneptunian objects. The origin of such a high fraction of binaries remains to be determined. Most interestingly, detectable binaries appear to be about four times more common among the cold classical disk than in the dynamically excited populations.

Accepted for Publication in the Astronomical Journal, 24 pages

References in corpus (5)

• Formation of Kuiper Belt Binaries
• Extreme Kuiper Belt Object 2001 QG298 and the Fraction of Contact Binaries
• Detection of Two Binary Trans-Neptunian Objects, 1997 CQ29 and 2000 CF105, with the Hubble Space Telescope
• The Orbit, Mass, and Albedo of Transneptunian Binary 1999 RZ253
• The Orbit and Albedo of Transneptunian Binary 1997 CQ29

Cited by in corpus (51)

• The Canada-France Ecliptic Plane Survey - Full Data Release: The orbital structure of the Kuiper belt
• "TNOs are Cool": A survey of the trans-Neptunian region X. Analysis of classical Kuiper belt objects from Herschel and Spitzer observations
• Towards Initial Mass Functions for Asteroids and Kuiper Belt Objects
• Irregular Satellites of the Planets: Products of Capture in the Early Solar System
• Orbits and Masses of the Satellites of the Dwarf Planet Haumea = 2003 EL61
• 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
• An Outer Planet Beyond Pluto and Origin of the Trans-Neptunian Belt Architecture
• The albedo-color diversity of transneptunian objects
• Satellites of the largest Kuiper belt objects
• Neptune's wild days: constraints from the eccentricity distribution of the classical Kuiper Belt
• Instability-Driven Dynamical Evolution Model of a Primordially 5 Planet Outer Solar System
• Correlations between compositions and orbits established by the giant impact era of planet formation
• Five New and Three Improved Mutual Orbits of Transneptunian Binaries
• The Luminosity Function of the Hot and Cold Kuiper belt Populations
• The orbit, mass, size, albedo, and density of (65489) Ceto/Phorcys: A tidally-evolved binary Centaur
• Runaway Growth During Planet Formation: Explaining the Size Distribution of Large Kuiper Belt Objects
• Water Ice on the Satellite of Kuiper Belt Object 2003 EL61
• Orbital properties of binary minor planets
• "TNOs are Cool": A survey of the trans-Neptunian region I. Results from the Herschel Science Demonstration Phase (SDP)
• Mutual Orbits and Masses of Six Transneptunian Binaries
• KCTF Evolution of Trans-Neptunian Binaries: Connecting Formation to Observation
• Cascade Model for Planetesimal Formation by Turbulent Clustering
• Lightcurves of 32 Large Transneptunian Objects
• Lightcurves of 20--100 kilometer Kuiper Belt Objects using the Hubble Space Telescope
• The Albedo, Size, and Density of Binary Kuiper Belt Object (47171) 1999 TC36
• Trans-Neptunian objects found in the first four years of the Dark Energy Survey
• Trans-Neptunian binaries (2018)
• Binaries in the Kuiper Belt
• Production of trans-Neptunian binaries through chaos-assisted capture
• Optical and Infrared Colors of Transneptunian Objects Observed with HST
• Neptune on tiptoes: dynamical histories that preserve the cold classical Kuiper belt
• Discovery of a Binary Centaur
• A Change in the Lightcurve of Kuiper Belt Contact Binary (139775) 2001 QG298
• Mutual Events in the Cold Classical Transneptunian Binary System Sila and Nunam
• Using Kuiper Belt Binaries to Constrain Neptune's Migration History
• Evidence of Orbital Motion in the Binary Brown Dwarf Kelu-1AB
• Lightcurves and Rotational Properties of the Pristine Cold Classical Kuiper Belt Objects
• 2007 TY430: A Cold Classical Kuiper Belt Type Binary in the Plutino Population
• Investigating Gravitational Collapse of a Pebble Cloud to form Transneptunian Binaries
• Spin-Spin Coupling in the Solar System
• Dynamically correlated minor bodies in the outer Solar system
• Great Expectations: Plans and Predictions for New Horizons Encounter with Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69 ('Ultima Thule')
• The Hill Stability of Triple Minor Planets in the Solar System
• Probing the Hill Sphere of (486958) 2014 MU${}_{69}$: HST FGS Observations During the July 17, 2017 Stellar Occultation
• Binary asteroid scattering around white dwarfs
• Do micro brown dwarf detections explain the galactic dark matter?
• Satellite capture mechanism in a sun-planet-binary four-body system
• TNOs are Cool! A Survey of the transneptunian Region XV. Physical characteristics of 23 resonant transneptunian and scattered disk objects
• The Onset of Chaos in Permanently Deformed Binaries from Spin-Orbit and Spin-Spin Coupling
• Distant TNO Inclinations as a Constraint on Primordial Cluster Perturbations in the Presence of Planet Nine