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Identifying Collisional Families in the Kuiper Belt

  • Authors: Robert A. Marcus, Darin Ragozzine, Ruth A. Murray-Clay, and Matthew J. Holman

Marcus et al. 2011 The Astrophysical Journal 733 40.

  • Provider: AAS Journals

Caption: Figure 6.

Histogram (panel 1) and cumulative number (panel 2) of KBOs vs. log Δ v min. This collisional family had a 250 km radius progenitor in the hot classical belt ( a = 46 AU, e = 0.14, i = 28°). The family members were all given a velocity kick relative to the largest remnant of Δ v = v esc. Note that the family members (solid line) are dominated in number by the background population (dashed line). Panels 3 and 4 show plots of the orbital element distribution of the synthetic KBO population for all bodies with no magnitude cutoff, including the collisional family. The red "X" indicates the location of the family's largest remnant. Note that the family is clear to the naked eye in inclination vs. semimajor axis, though this is partly due to our choice of Δ v = v esc.

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