Skip to main content
We gratefully acknowledge support from the Simons Foundation, member institutions, and all contributors. Donate
arXiv logo
Cornell University Logo

Astrophysics

arXiv:astro-ph/0011325 (astro-ph)
[Submitted on 16 Nov 2000]

Title:On the Size-Dependence of the Inclination Distribution of the Main Kuiper Belt

Authors:H.F. Levison, S.A. Stern
View PDF
Abstract: We present a new analysis of the currently available orbital elements for the known Kuiper belt objects. In the non-resonant, main Kuiper belt we find a statistically significant relationship between an object's absolute magnitude (H) and its inclination (i). Objects with H<6.5 (i.e. radii >~170 km for a 4% albedo) have higher inclinations than those with H>6.5 (radii >~ 170 km). We have shown that this relationship is not caused by any obvious observational bias. We argue that the main Kuiper belt consists of the superposition of two distinct distributions. One is dynamically hot with inclinations as large as \~35 deg and absolute magnitudes as bright as 4.5; the other is dynamically cold with i<~5 deg and H>6.5. The dynamically cold population is most likely dynamically primordial. We speculate on the potential causes of this relationship.
Comments: 14 pages, 6 postscript figures
Subjects: Astrophysics (astro-ph)
Cite as: arXiv:astro-ph/0011325
  (or arXiv:astro-ph/0011325v1 for this version)
  https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.astro-ph/0011325
Related DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/319420

Submission history

From: S. Alan Stern [view email]
[v1] Thu, 16 Nov 2000 19:30:27 UTC (57 KB)
Full-text links:

Access Paper:

  • View PDF
  • TeX Source
  • Other Formats
view license
Current browse context:
astro-ph
< prev   |   next >
new | recent | 2000-11

References & Citations

export BibTeX citation

Bookmark

BibSonomy logo Reddit logo

Bibliographic and Citation Tools

Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?)
Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?)
Litmaps (What is Litmaps?)
scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?)

Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article

alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?)
CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?)
DagsHub (What is DagsHub?)
Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?)
Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?)
Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?)
ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?)

Demos

Replicate (What is Replicate?)
Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?)
TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?)

Recommenders and Search Tools

Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?)
CORE Recommender (What is CORE?)
IArxiv Recommender (What is IArxiv?)

arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators

arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.

Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.

Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.

Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)