A Systematic Large-Scale Survey of the Overlooked Population of Small Objects Between the Orbits of the Outer Planets.

Planetary Science Institute, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Centaurs are small bodies residing on unstable orbits between Jupiter and Neptune. They have been scattered out of their original orbits far from the Sun and offer an opportunity to learn about the nature of the more distant objects to which they are related. Understanding these objects will give astronomers an opportunity to constrain models of Solar System formation. The PI and her team will use data from the Pan-STARRS catalog to find more small Centaurs as well as using large telescopes to study these objects. They will look for signs that these Centaurs show some sort of comet-like activity, and they will use numerical models to explain this activity. The PI will work with professional education staff at the Planetary Science Institute to develop and deliver 3-day workshops to teachers of grades 3-8 in southern Arizona. The team will conduct a systematic Centaur population study utilizing data from a single, well-characterized all-sky survey, Pan-STARRS1, that will allow them to shed light on the evolution of Centaurs from the Scattered Disk to Jupiter Family Comets by calculating their debiased size-frequency distribution (SFD), and to better understand the effects of dynamical history of Centaurs on their activity. They will: 1) Search for new Centaurs in the Pan-STARRS1 detection catalog to obtain targets of opportunity, and to collect a statistically adequate sample for calculating a debiased size-frequency distribution; 2) model the Pan-STARRS1 survey biases with a synthetic Centaur model and apply the resulting detection efficiency to the real data in order to calculate a debiased SFD down to kilometer-size regime; 3) make deep-imaging observations of Centaurs with a wide range of perihelion distances to search for and to characterize their activity using photometric analysis and numerical dust modeling; and 4) run dynamical integrations and utilize thermal modeling to investigate correlations of Centaur activity with their orbital history, with implications for the activity triggers and composition. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.