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arXiv 2003.06519astro-ph.EP
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哈勃Space Telescope对高近日点天体活动的搜索

Hubble Space Telescope Search for Activity in High Perihelion Objects

Jing Li, David Jewitt, Max Mutchler, Jessica Agarwal, Harold Weaver

摘要:

近日点在木星轨道($q >$ 5 AU)之外的太阳系天体温度太低,水冰无法通过升华产生明显的彗发。尽管如此,观测到许多高近日点天体(HPO),包括许多彗星和最近逃逸的柯伊伯带天体("半人马座“),至少在土星轨道($q \sim$ 10天文单位)外活动。峰值平衡温度为10 AU($\sim$ 125 K),虽然太低而无法升华水冰,但足以升华超挥发物,例如CO和CO $_2$冰。10天文单位的温度也足够高,足以触发暴露的无定形冰的快速结晶,从而构成另一个可能的遥远活动的驱动因素。虽然超挥发性冰可以强烈升华(如$r_H^{-2}$)到至少柯伊伯带(30 AU)的距离,结晶是温度的指数函数,不能持续超过$\sim$ 10 AU。因此,活动的日心依赖性表明了一个观测测试。如果近日点天体的活动是由结晶作用触发的,那么在近日点$q >>$ 10天文单位中就不应该发现任何活动的例子。如果,另一方面,活动是由于暴露的超挥发性冰的自由升华,或其他原因,那么遥远的活动可能会被检测到。我们获得了灵敏的,高分辨率的哈勃太空望远镜观测HPOs,以寻找结晶区以外的活动。在53个$q >$ 15 AU的物体中未检测到活性实例,与结晶触发假说一致。然而,敏感性的限制是这样的,我们不能拒绝的替代假设,即质量损失是由超挥发性冰的升华。我们还搜索了我们的样本中的二进制同伴,没有发现,并设置了一个经验3 $σ$限制的二进制分数的$<8$ \%。

英文摘要:

Solar system objects with perihelia beyond the orbit of Jupiter ($q >$ 5 AU) are too cold for water ice to generate an appreciable coma via sublimation. Despite this, numerous high perihelion objects (HPOs) including many comets and recently escaped Kuiper belt objects (``Centaurs'') are observed to be active out at least to the orbit of Saturn ($q \sim$ 10 AU). Peak equilibrium temperatures at 10 AU ($\sim$125 K), while far too low to sublimate water ice, are sufficient to sublimate super-volatiles such as CO and CO$_2$ ice. Temperatures at 10 AU are also high enough to trigger the rapid crystallization of exposed amorphous ice, thus constituting another possible driver of distant activity. While supervolatile ices can sublimate strongly (as $r_H^{-2}$) to at least Kuiper belt (30 AU) distances, crystallization is an exponential function of temperature that cannot be sustained much beyond $\sim$10 AU. The heliocentric dependence of the activity thus suggests an observational test. If activity in high perihelion objects is triggered by crystallization, then no examples of activity should be found with perihelia $q >>$ 10 AU. If, on the other hand, activity is due to free sublimation of exposed supervolatile ices, or another cause, then distant activity might be detected. We obtained sensitive, high resolution Hubble Space Telescope observations of HPOs to search for activity beyond the crystallization zone. No examples of activity were detected in 53 objects with $q >$ 15 AU, consistent with the crystallization trigger hypothesis. However, sensitivity limits are such that we cannot reject the alternative hypothesis that mass loss is driven by the sublimation of supervolatile ices. We also searched for binary companions in our sample, finding none and setting an empirical 3$σ$ limit to the binary fraction of $<8$\%.

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

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