Thursday, March 15, 2007

Trans-Neptunian Objects broken into pieces

Mike Brown and collaborators discovered the first colisional family of Trans-Neptunian Objects, also known as Kuiper Belt Objects. The results had been announced by K. Barkume, Mike Brown's PhD student, in October 2006, at the Division for Planetary Sciences meeting, in Pasadena, U.S.A.

The article just came out in Nature (Brown et al. 2007, Nature, 446, 294-296). The work identifies a group of Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) as the "debris" of a violent collision between two bodies. This group of TNOs was characterized by the presence of strong water ice absorption bands on its surface but with no evidence for methane ice. Note that 3 of the largest TNOs, Pluto (2320 km in diameter), Eris (2400 km) and 2005FY9 (about 1600-2000 km) possess methane ice on its surface. TNOs without methane normally show little or no water ice (we are talking about surfaces here, the interiors are another question). However, the objects: 2003EL61 (about 1500 km), 1995SM55, 1996TO66, 2002TX300, 2003OP32, 2005RR43 and S/2005(2003EL61)1 - the brightest satellite of 2003EL61 -, possess strong absorption bands due to water ice without showing methane. This fact called attention to these objects.

An orbital dynamics analysis showed that all these objects possess orbits similar to the one of 2003EL61, leading to the conclusion they are, in fact, the "debris" of the collision between the proto-2003EL61 (i.e. the old 2003EL61) and another object. The simulations suggest that 20% of the proto-2003EL61's mass can be thrown into Space if it collides with one object of 60% of its size, at about 3 km/s (10000 km/h).

The fact that 2003EL61 has a rugby ball shape, possess two satellites, a relatively high mass density and one "day" of only 4 hours indicated already that, in the past, this object had suffered a violent collision that ejected its original mantle of ices leaving it with two satellites and a stretched shape.

To get an idea of the difficulty of this discovery, let us imagine a "party" in a china store where each person has a baseball bat... In the next day someone will take a look at the pieces and to try to find out if there was a Franklin Mint Princess Diana plate there and where. The comparison is not exaggerated.

The study of Trans-Neptunian Objects, done at the sensitivity limits of the largest telescopes, continues to surprise us.

Friday, March 9, 2007

Pluto: a matter of State?

The question of the planetary status of Pluto seems to persist beyond the reasonable. The state of New Mexico (U.S.A.) intends to declare Pluto as a planet and call March 13th the "Pluto Planet Day", apparently only during this year (see the links for this news and the legislative proposal ).

Pluto's discovery was announced on March 13th of 1930, by Clyde Tombaugh. The specific announcement date was chosen as it was Persival Lowell's anniversary. Lowell had proposed the existence of a planet beyond Neptune, calling it Planet-X. Despite his efforts to detect Planet-X, founding even the Lowell Observatory (Flagstaff, Arizona, U.S.A.), he died in 1916 without observing it.

This planet definition issue may be somewhat subjective and delicate. But, actually, from the study of Pluto point of view it doesn't matter how it is classified. It is there, it is interesting, hence it is studied. The New Mexico's proposal may be funny if seen as a memorial service. But if it catches on one day we will start seeing the "Flat Earth Day", the "Geocentrism Day", or even the "Creationism Day".