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The Ices on Transneptunian Objects and Centaurs

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Book cover The Science of Solar System Ices

Part of the book series: Astrophysics and Space Science Library ((ASSL,volume 356))

Abstract

Transneptunian objects (TNOs) and Centaurs are small bodies orbiting the Sun in the cold outer regions of the Solar System. TNOs include Pluto and its satellite Charon, and Neptune’s large satellite Triton is thought to have been captured from the TNO population. Visible and near-infrared spectroscopy of a number of the brightest of these bodies shows surface ices of H2O, CH4, N2, CH3OH, C2H6, CO, CO2, NH3•nH2O, and possibly HCN, in various combinations; water ice is by far the most common. Silicate minerals and solid complex carbonaceous materials are thought to occur on these bodies, but their spectral signatures have not yet been positively identified. The pronounced red color of several TNOs and Centaurs is presumed to result from the presence of carbonaceous materials. In all, the TNOs and Centaurs are thought to be primitive bodies in the sense that they have undergone relatively little modification by heating and by the space environment since their condensation in the volatile-rich outer regions of the solar nebula. As such, they hold the potential to yield important information on the chemical and physical conditions of the solar nebula. Continued and expanded studies of TNOs and Centaurs require additional basic laboratory data on the physical and the optical properties of the ices already identified and those candidate materials that have not yet been confirmed. New sky surveys and large telescopes projected for operation in the near future will reveal many more objects in the outer Solar System for detailed study.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Some TNOs may have originated in cold regions of the solar nebula and incorporated pre-solar materials, others may have incorporated grains which were reprocessed close to the sun (such as crystalline silicates detected in comets), due to a huge radial mixing during the early stages of the solar nebula and before the accretion of the planetesimals.

  2. 2.

    So far, it has been difficult to detect silicate features in the VNIR spectra of TNOs and Centaurs, although their presence is deduced mainly thanks to our knowledge of the composition of cometary dust and “cometary” (anhydrous “chondritic porous”) interplanetary dust particles. Such difficulty may be either due to the opacity of associated carbonaceous species and sulfides in this spectral region, or to the lack of Fe2+ (which may be partly responsible for the visible absorption) in the silicates.

  3. 3.

    Note that a layer of at least 200 μm of non-absorbing very fine grained ice is required to mask the presence of refractory materials in the visible range (e.g. Gil-Hutton et al. 2009).

  4. 4.

    The position of the termination shock may have changed during Solar System history, in response to changes in the local interstellar environment of the Sun and solar activity. Occasionally, it may have moved further inward producing higher irradiation doses for the classical TNOs.

  5. 5.

    For Haumea, using the Stefan-Boltzmann law, Merlin et al. (2007) estimated a mean surface temperature of about 30 K, and using the peak position of the 1.65-μm band they estimated an upper limit of 40 K.

  6. 6.

    This value can be obtained using the estimates of the dose by Strazzulla et al. (2003). According to several authors (Strazzulla et al. 1992; Moore and Hudson 1992; Leto and Baratta 2003; Mastrapa and Brown 2006), 10 eV/molecule is the dose at which the saturation level of amorphous ice is reached after irradiation. The error bar on this estimate can reasonably be of 20%, so that the amorphization timescale should be considered to be in the range 0.8–1.2 Gyr.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, Meudon, France

    C. de Bergh

  2. Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA

    E. L. Schaller

  3. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA

    M. E. Brown

  4. Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, Univ. Paris-Sud, CNRS, UMR-8617, Orsay, France

    R. Brunetto

  5. NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California, USA

    D. P. Cruikshank

  6. Laboratoire de Planétologie de Grenoble, Université Joseph Fourier, CNRS-INSU, Grenoble, France

    B. Schmitt

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  1. C. de Bergh
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  2. E. L. Schaller
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  3. M. E. Brown
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  4. R. Brunetto
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  5. D. P. Cruikshank
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  6. B. Schmitt
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Correspondence to C. de Bergh .

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  1. NASA Jet Propulsion Lab., California Institute of Technology, Oak Grove Drive 4800, Pasadena, 91109-8099, California, USA

    Murthy S. Gudipati

  2. NASA Jet Propulsion Lab., California Institute of Technology, Oak Grove Drive 4800, Pasadena, 91109-8099, California, USA

    Julie Castillo-Rogez

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de Bergh, C., Schaller, E.L., Brown, M.E., Brunetto, R., Cruikshank, D.P., Schmitt, B. (2013). The Ices on Transneptunian Objects and Centaurs. In: Gudipati, M., Castillo-Rogez, J. (eds) The Science of Solar System Ices. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 356. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3076-6_4

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