发表机构
University of Victoria; Northern Arizona University; National Research Council of Canada, Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre; University of Pennsylvania; Space Telescope Science Institute; Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian; University of Waterloo（维多利亚大学; 北亚利桑那大学; 加拿大国家研究委员会，赫茨伯格天文学和天体物理学研究中心; 宾夕法尼亚大学; 太空望远镜科学研究所; 哈佛-史密森尼天体物理中心; 滑铁卢大学）
机构由 AI 辅助整理，请以论文原文为准。AI 中文总结
利用JWST NIRCam的移位叠加和机器学习技术，发现27个极暗TNOs，最暗达29.3等，直径约10公里，其光度函数呈单一幂律，冷热亚群斜率一致，揭示星子形成过程的相似性。
AI 中文摘要
我们利用詹姆斯·韦布空间望远镜（JWST）上的近红外相机（NIRCam）报告了27个外海王星天体（TNOs）的决定性发现。通过采用移位叠加技术以及一个专门用于识别JWST图像中由移位叠加过程产生的假阳性探测的机器学习网络，我们在0.05平方度的天区上实现了40%的探测阈值，对应$m_{F150W2}=28.8$等（相当于$m_r\sim29.8$等）。这标志着迄今为止最深度的太阳系巡天，达到的星等使我们能够探索TNO大小分布中前所未有的区域。我们最暗的探测目标的$m_{F150W2}=29.3$等，直径约为10公里（假设反照率为15%）。在我们的样本中，我们发现冷和热TNO亚群都表现出幂律斜率。我们名义样本（所有历元的探测）的视星等分布很好地拟合为单一幂律$dN/dm \propto 10^{\alpha m}$，其中$\alpha=0.29^{+0.08}_{-0.07}$。我们发现样本中的动力学热和冷子样本与该幂律一致，这表明尽管两个种群在假定的约25和约45天文单位形成区域存在不同的盘条件，星子形成过程仍产生相似的斜率。
英文摘要
We present a definitive discovery of 27 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) using the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) aboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). By employing a shift-and-stack technique and a machine learning network geared specifically to identifying false-positive detections in JWST images produced through the shift-and-stack process, we achieved a 40\% detection threshold of $m_{F150W2}=28.8$ mag (corresponding to $m_r\sim29.8$ mag) across a sky area of $0.05 \ \text{deg}^2$. This marks the deepest Solar System survey to date, reaching magnitudes that allow us to explore never-before-seen regions of the TNO size distribution. Our faintest detection has $m_{F150W2}=29.3$ mag and diameter of $\sim10$ km (assuming 15\% albedo). Within our sample, we find that both the Cold and Hot TNO subpopulations exhibit a power-law slope. The distribution of apparent magnitudes of our nominal sample (detections at all epochs) are well fit by a single power law $dN/dm \propto 10^{αm}$ with $α=0.29^{+0.08}_{-0.07}$. The dynamically hot and cold subsamples in our discovery set are consistent with the same power law, suggesting that the planetesimal formation process yields similar slopes despite the differing disk conditions at the presumed $\sim25$ and $\sim45$~au formation regions of the two populations.
Comments21 Figures, 7 tables. Accepted for publication at the Astronomical Journal. Redline edited version available at the DOI
