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Influence of the Centaurs and TNOs on the main belt and its families

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Abstract

Centaurs are objects whose orbits are found between those of the giant planets. They are supposed to originate mainly from the Trans-Neptunian objects, and they are among the sources of Near-Earth Objects. Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) cross Neptune’s orbit and produce the Centaurs. We investigate their interactions with main belt asteroids to determine if chaotic scattering caused by close encounters and impacts by these bodies may have played a role in the dynamical evolution of the main belt. We find that Centaurs and TNOs that reach the inner Solar System can modify the orbits of main belt asteroids, though only if their mass is of the order of \(10^{-9} m_{\odot }\) for single encounters or, one order less in case of multiple close encounters. Centaurs and TNOs are unlikely to have significantly dispersed young asteroid families in the main belt, but they could have perturbed some old asteroid families. Current main belt asteroids that originated as Centaurs or Trans-Neptunian Objects may lie in the outer belt with short lifetime \(\leq 4~\mbox{My}\), most likely between 2.8 and 3.2 au at larger eccentricities than typical of main belt asteroids.

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Notes

  1. June 2015.

  2. The majority of the observed Centaurs and TNOs have smaller masses, e.g. for Schwamb et al. (2014), large bodies comparable to Pluto in size (and so masses) are \(\sim12\), but in the past there were many more of them (Brasser and Morbidelli 2013).

  3. The diameter was computed using the equation of Tedesco et al. (1992), assuming the average albedo \(\rho_{V}=0.05\) of the Centaurs (Rabinowitz et al. 2007): \(D =\frac{1329}{\rho_{V}}10^{- \frac{H}{5}}\). In this way, we can assume a body is larger than 100 km when its absolute magnitude, \(H\lesssim 9\).

  4. In practice, we examined all those below a value of 3.91 au (Helga’s aphelion), to be sure that the Centaurs and TNOs interact with this region.

  5. Computed via the Tedesco et al. (1992) equation, assuming the average albedo \(\rho_{V}=0.05\) of the Centaurs (Rabinowitz et al. 2007): \(D=\frac{1329}{\rho_{V}}10^{-\frac{H}{5}}\). \(H\) is the absolute magnitude, and \(D\gtrsim 100\) when \(H\lesssim 9\).

  6. For the Present Population, 16 % of the Centaurs and 18 % of the TNOs, for the Ancient Population 6 %. The rest of all those populations which interact with the main belt (having perihelion, \(q\lesssim 3.8\) for at least 2 kyrs, see Sect. 2) have semi-major axis \(a>3.8~\mbox{au}\).

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Acknowledgements

MAG wants to acknowledge the support by the Austrian FWF project P23810-N16 and the “Reitoria de pós-graduação da UNESP” (PROPg, grant PVExt-2015). The core part of this work was done when MAG has been present at UNESP as “visiting fellow”. MAG wants also to thanks Prof. V. Carruba for his important suggestions for the paper and Dr. Y. Cavecchi for suggestions in computational improvements and Prof. A. Morbidelli for data on the population decay of the TNOs. SA wants to thank Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq, grant 13/15357-1). This work was also supported in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

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Correspondence to Mattia A. Galiazzo.

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Galiazzo, M.A., Wiegert, P. & Aljbaae, S. Influence of the Centaurs and TNOs on the main belt and its families. Astrophys Space Sci 361, 371 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-016-2957-z

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