Abstract
The Edgeworth—Kuiper (E—K) belt, a population of small bodies a thousand times greater in number than that of the main asteroid belt orbiting outside Neptune’s orbit, is undergoing collisional comminution. The discovery of these bodies confirmed strong dynamical evidence that short period comets come from a transneptunian source region. Like main belt asteroids, the size distribution of E—K belt objects has been affected by mutual impacts over Solar System history. Collisional evolution studies of the E-K belt show that bodies larger than several tens of km in diameter survive over times comparable to the age of the Solar System, hence their size distribution reflects accretionary processes in the early Solar System. At smaller sizes, however, impacts have produced a collisionally relaxed population of fragments which are predicted to have a power-law size distribution with an incremental diameter exponent near −3.5. Collisions can also inject km-sized fragments into dynamical resonances, whence they can be transported to the inner Solar System to become short period comets. However, dynamical mechanisms are needed to produce the Centaurs, a population of much larger bodies than the Jupiter family comets.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Cochran, A.L., Levison, H.F., Stern, S.A. and Duncan, M.J. (1995) The discovery of Halley-sized Kuiper belt objects using the Hubble Space Telescope, Astrophys. J. 455, 342–346.
Davis, D.R., and Farinella, P. (1997) Collisional evolution of Edgeworth-Kuiper belt objects, Icarus 125, 50–60.
Davis, D.R., Weidenschilling, S.J. and Farinella, P. (1999) Accretion of a massive Edgeworth-Kuiper belt, in Lunar Planet. Sci. XXX, Abstract #1883, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston (CD-ROM).
Davis, D.R., Weidenschilling, S.J., Farinella, P. Paolicchi, P. and Binzel, R.P. (1989) Asteroid collisional history: Effects on sizes and spins, in Asteroids II (Eds. R.P. Binzel, T. Gehrels, and M.S. Matthews), Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, pp. 805–826.
Davis, D.R., Farinella, P. and Weidenschilling, S.J. (2000) Accretion and collisional erosion of a massive Edgeworth-Kuiper belt: Constraints on the initial population, to be submitted to Icarus.
Dell’Oro, A., Marzari, F., Paolicchi, P. and Vanzani, V. (2000). Updated collisional probabilities of minor body populations, submitted to Astron. Astrophys..
Dohnanyi, J.W. (1969) Collisional model of asteroids and their debris, J. Geophys. Res. 74, 2531–2554.
Duncan, M., Quinn, T. and Tremaine, S. (1988) The origin of short-period comets, Astrophys. J. 328, L69–73.
Duncan, M.J., Levison, H.F. and Budd, S.M. (1995) The dynamical structure of the Kuiper belt, Astron. J. 110, 3073–3081.
Edgeworth, K.E. (1949) The origin and evolution of the Solar System, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 109, 600–609.
Farinella, P., and Davis, D.R. (1996) Short period comets: Primordial bodies or collisional fragments?, Science 273, 938–941.
Fernández, J.A. (1980) On the existence of a comet belt beyond Neptune, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 192, 481–491.
Gladman, B., Kavelaars, J., Nicholson, P.D., Loredo, T.J. and Burns, J.A. (1998) Pencil-beam surveys for faint trans-Neptunian objects, Astron. J. 116, 2042–2054.
Jewitt, D., Luu, J.X. and Trujillo, C. (1998) Large Kuiper Belt objects: The Mauna Kea 8K CCD survey, Astron. J. 115, 2125–2135.
Jewitt, D., and Luu, J.X. (1993) Discovery of the candidate Kuiper belt object 1992 QB1, Nature 362, 730–732.
Jewitt, D., and Meech, K. (1988) Optical properties of cometary nuclei and a preliminary comparison with asteroids, Astrophys. J. 328, 974–986.
Kenyon, S.J., and Luu, J.X. (1999) Accretion in the early Kuiper Belt: II. Fragmentation, Astron. J. 118, 1101–1119.
Kuiper, G.P. (1951) On the origin of the solar system, in Astrophysics: A Topical Symposium, (J.A. Hynek, Ed.), McGraw-Hill, New York, pp. 357–424.
Levison, H.F., and Duncan, M.J. (1994) The long-term dynamical behavior of short-period comets, Icarus 108, 18–36.
Lissauer, J., Pollack, J.B., Wetherill, G.W. and Stevenson, D.J. (1995) Formation of the Neptune system, in Neptune and Triton, Univ. of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 37–108.
Luu, J.X., and Jewitt, D.C. (1996) Reflection spectrum of the Kuiper belt object 1993 SC, Astron. J. 111, 499–503.
Morbidelli, A. (1997) Chaotic diffusion and the origin of comets from the 2/3 resonance in the Kuiper Belt, Icarus 127, 1–12.
Morbidelli, A., Thomas, F. and Moons, M. (1995) The resonant structure of the Kuiper belt and the dynamics of the first five trans-Neptunian objects, Icarus 118, 322–340.
Owen, T.C., Mahaffy, P., Niemann, H.B., Atreya, S., Donahue, T., Bar-Nun, A. and de Pater, I. (1999) Low temperature condensates brought heavy elements to Jupiter, Bull. Amer. Astron. Soc. 31,, 1131.
Quinn, T., Tremaine, S. and Duncan. M. (1990) Planetary perturbations and the origin of short-period comets, Astrophys. J. 355, 667–679.
Stern, S.A. (1995) Collision timescales in the Kuiper disk: Model estimates and their implications, Astron J. 110, 856–868.
Stern, S.A. (1996) Signature of collisions in the Kuiper disk: Model estimates and their implications, Astron. Astrophys. 310, 999–1009.
Stern, S.A. and Colwell, J. (1997) Accretion of the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt: Forming 100–1000 km radius bodies at 30 AU and beyond, Astron. J. 114, 841–849.
Thommes, E.W., Duncan, M.J. and Levison H.F. (2000) The formation of Uranus and Neptune in the Jupiter-Saturn region, Nature 402, 635–638.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Davis, D.R., Farinella, P.F. (2001). Collisional Effects in the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt. In: Marov, M.Y., Rickman, H. (eds) Collisional Processes in the Solar System. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 261. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0712-2_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0712-2_17
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-3832-4
Online ISBN: 978-94-010-0712-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive