The Size Distribution of Kuiper Belt Objects

By S. Kenyon, B. Bromley. 2004

153 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We describe analytical and numerical collisional evolution calculations for the size distribution of icy bodies in the Kuiper belt. For a wide range of bulk properties, initial masses, and orbital parameters, our results yield power-law cumulative size distributions, NC ∝ r-q, with qL ≈ 3.5 for large bodies (with radii r ≳ 10–100 km) and qS ≈ 2.5–3 for small bodies (with radii r ≲ 0.1–1 km). The transition between the two power laws occurs at a break radius rb ≈ 1–30 km. The break radius is more sensitive to the initial mass in the Kuiper belt and the amount of stirring by Neptune than to the bulk properties of individual Kuiper belt objects (KBOs). Comparisons with observations indicate that most models can explain the observed sky surface density σ(m) of KBOs for red magnitudes R ≈ 22–27. For R ≲ 22 and R ≳ 28, the model σ(m) is sensitive to the amount of stirring by Neptune, suggesting that the size distribution of icy planets in the outer solar system provides independent constraints on the formation of Neptune.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c978698571166c32fd8021c00d5c84e1d740580d

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

Citations in the corpus

Long-Term Collisional Evolution of Debris Disks (2007, unknown): “Simulations by Kenyon & Bromley (2004) yieldpp = 4.0– 4.5 or qp = 2.00–2.17.”
Variations on Debris Disks: Icy Planet Formation at 30-150 AU for 1-3 M☉ Main-Sequence Stars (2008, methodology): “Startingwith an ensemble of P 1 km sized planetesimals, Kenyon & Bromley (2002b, 2004a, 2004b, 2005) show that collisions and mergers form 500Y1000 km sized objects in 1Y50 Myr.”
Origin of the structure of the Kuiper belt during a dynamical instability in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune (2007, background): “In particular, the growth of these objects within a reasonable time (107–108 My) requires the existence of about 10 to 30 M⊕ of solid material in a dynamically cold disk (Stern, 1996; Stern & Colwell, 1997a, 1997b; Kenyon & Luu, 1998; 1999a; 1999b; Kenyon & Bromley 2004b).”
Full numerical simulations of catastrophic small body collisions (2008, background): “As a result, the collisional evolution of the outer solar system may have produced more mass loss from collisional grinding (e.g., Kenyon and Bromley 2004).”
Asteroids Were Born Big (2009, background): “t is likely that the turn-over observed in its SFD at D ∼ 100 km (Bernstein et al., 2004) is also a signature of accretion and not one of collisional grinding, unlike what it is usually assumed (e.g. Kenyon and Bromley, 2004; Pan and Sari, 2005). Finally, we have shown that the sudden appearance of ”
Terrestrial Planet Formation. I. The Transition from Oligarchic Growth to Chaotic Growth (2005, background): “The disk then produces a substantial infrared excess (Kenyon & Bromley 2004b).”
Adding particle collisions to the formation of asteroids and Kuiper belt objects via streaming instabilities (2011, background): “This stranding scenario is an alternative to the more classical view that the asteroid and Kuiper belts were disturbed by the presence of giant planets (e.g. Kenyon & Bromley 2004).”