Skip to main content
All Reviews
AstronomyWorth Reading
intermediate

OSSOS. XIII. Fossilized Resonant Dropouts Tentatively Confirm Neptune's Migration Was Grainy and Slow

Lawler, S. M. et al. (2019)

Published
Jun 1, 2019
DOI
10.3847/1538-3881/ab1c4c

At a GlanceAI

High-perihelion TNOs left sunward of the 5:2 and 3:1 resonances tentatively favor grainy, slow Neptune migration.

SummaryAI

The authors run five published Neptune migration models through the OSSOS survey simulator and compare them with detected high-perihelion TNOs near the 5:2 and 3:1 resonances. All four new OSSOS high-q nonresonant objects sit on the sunward side of these resonances, an asymmetry unlikely to come from a uniform distribution (2 sigma). This tentatively favors grainy, slow migration, but the sample is tiny. The paper argues that a deeper survey (r about 26) of OSSOS size could tell the five models apart.

Method SnapshotAI

Comparison of migration simulations with survey detections through a survey simulator.

BackgroundAI

Planetary migration scenarios, resonance capture, survey bias.