Col-OSSOS: Investigating Outlying Surfaces within the Kuiper Belt's Neutral Coloured Objects
- 1Astrophysics Research Centre, Queen’s University Belfast
- 2NRC-Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics, National Research Council of Canada, 5071 West Saanich Road, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7, Canada
- 3School of Physical and Chemical Sciences—Te Kura Matū, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand
- 4Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- 5Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- 6Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Elliott Building, 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2, Canada
- 7Planetary Science Institute, 1700 East Fort Lowell, Suite 106, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- 8Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica; 11F of AS/NTU Astronomy-Mathematics Building, No.1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd Taipei 10617, Taiwan, R.O.C
- 9Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal
- 10Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, 1629 E. University Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- 11Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- 12Institut UTINAM UMR6213, CNRS, Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comt ́e, OSU Theta F-25000 Besanc ̧on, France1
Within the outer Solar System exists the Kuiper belt. This Kuiper belt is made up of many icy planetesimals, the remaining relics of planet-forming bodies that failed to evolve into a planet beyond Neptune. The smaller members of the Kuiper belt (with r mag > 22) generally show linear and featureless spectra. Additionally, due to the dimness of these objects observing their spectra can be particularly difficult. Therefore, broadband photometry is often used to characterise their surfaces. The broadband photometry can be used as a proxy for composition, as it provides enough information to characterise the optical and near-infrared spectral slopes ofthese Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) surfaces.
The Colours of the Outer Solar System Origins Survey (Col-OSSOS, Schwamb et al., 2019) took near-simultaneous g-, r- and J-band broadband photometry of a sample of KBOs with unprecedented precision using the Gemini North telescope. As with previous colour surveys (e.g. Tegler et al., 2016), they showed abimodal colour distribution in optical / near-infrared colours for the dynamically ‘hot’ population. We split this colour distribution into the ‘neutral’ coloured population with (g−r) < 0.75 and the ‘red’ coloured populationwith (g−r) ≥ 0.75.
The preciseness of the colour measurements of Col-OSSOS has allowed the identification of several KBOs with outlying surface colours. These objects separated out from the rest of the neutral cloud in (g−r) versus (r−J) colours, with (g−r) colour near solar colour. Using the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii we have taken extra photometry in the i− and z−bands for three of these objects (2013 JE64, 2013 JR65 and 2014 UL225). These additional filter observations will allow us to identify any possible broadband absorption features on these object’s surfaces that may have caused their outlying surface colours. Asteroid interloper 2004 EW95 (Seccull et al., 2018), along with some Jupiter Trojans and C-type asteroids (Bus & Binzel, 2002; DeMeo & Carry,2013) have been shown to have similar near solar neutral surfaces. In this presentation we will report resultsof the griz photometry of 2013 JE64, 2013 JR65 and 2014 UL225. We will make comparisons between these results and the photometry of previously identified outlying KBOs and comment on any possible similarities.
References
Bus, S. J., & Binzel, R. P. 2002, Icarus, 158, 146
DeMeo, F. E., & Carry, B. 2013, Icarus, 226, 723
Schwamb, M. E., Bannister, M. T., Marsset, M., et al. 2019, ApJS, 243, 12
Seccull, T., Fraser, W. C., Puzia, T. H., Brown, M. E., & Schönebeck, F. 2018, ApJ, Letters, 855, L26
Tegler, S. C., Romanishin, W., Consolmagno, G. J., & J., S. 2016, AJ, 152, 210
How to cite: Buchanan, L., Schwamb, M., Fraser, W., Bannister, M., Marsset, M., Pike, R., Kavelaars, J., Benecchi, S., Lehner, M., Wang, S.-Y., Peixinho, N., Volk, K., Alexandersen, M., Chen, Y.-T., Gladman, B., Gwyn, S., and Petit, J.-M.: Col-OSSOS: Investigating Outlying Surfaces within the Kuiper Belt's Neutral Coloured Objects, European Planetary Science Congress 2021, online, 13–24 Sep 2021, EPSC2021-339, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2021-339, 2021.
