Two Trans-Neptunian Objects May Have Migrated Into the Asteroid Belt
takyon writes:
2 Red Objects Were Found in the Asteroid Belt. They Shouldn't Be There.
Scientists led by Sunao Hasegawa from JAXA, the Japanese space agency, reported in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on Monday that two objects spotted in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter appear to have originated beyond Neptune. The discoveries could one day provide direct evidence of the chaos that existed in the early solar system.
[...] [203 Pompeja and 269 Justitia] orbit at about 2.7 and 2.6 times the Earth-sun distance, well within the asteroid belt. 203 Pompeja, at about 70 miles across, appears to be structurally intact, whereas 269 Justitia, only 35 miles or so, is likely a fragment of a previous collision. Both have stable circular orbits, meaning they must have settled into this space long ago.
Both also have an unusual color. Objects in the inner solar system tend to reflect more blue light because they are devoid of organic material - things like carbon and methane - whereas objects in the outer solar system are redder because they have a lot of organics, perhaps the building blocks of life on Earth.
"In order to have these organics, you need to initially have a lot of ice at the surface," said Michael Marsset from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a co-author on the paper. "So they must have formed in a very cold environment. Then the solar irradiation of the ice creates those complex organics."
These two rocks, as it turns out, are extremely red - more red than anything else seen in the asteroid belt. While tentative hints of other red asteroids have been found, these two appear to be special.
Also at Universe Today.
Journal Reference:
Sunao Hasegawa, Michael Marsset, Francesca E. DeMeo, et al. Discovery of Two TNO-like Bodies in the Asteroid Belt - IOPscience, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ac0f05)
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