The Canada-France Ecliptic Plane Survey - Full Data Release: The Orbital Structure of the Kuiper Belt

Jean-Marc C. Petit (1, 2) , J.J. Kavelaars (3) , B.J. Gladman (2) , R.L. Jones (2, 3) , J.Wm. Parker (4) , C. van Laerhoven (2, 5) , P. Nicholson (6) , G. Mars (7) , P. Rousselot (1) , O. Mousis (1) , B. Marsden (8) , A. Bieryla (4) , M. Taylor (9) , M.L.N. Ashby (8) , P. Benavidez (10) , A. Campo Bagatin (10) , G. Bernabeu (10)

1 UTINAM - Univers, Transport, Interfaces, Nanostructures, Atmosphère et environnement, Molécules (UMR 6213)
2 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Vancouver]
3 NRC Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics
4 SwRI Planetary Science Directorate [Boulder]
5 Department of Planetary Sciences [Tucson]
6 Cornell University [New York]
7 CASSIOPEE - Laboratoire de Cosmologie, Astrophysique Stellaire & Solaire, de Planétologie et de Mécanique des Fluides
8 CfA - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
9 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Victoria]
10 DFESTS - Departamento de Fisica, Ingenieria de Sistemas y Teoria de la Señal [Alicante]

We report the orbital distribution of the trans-neptunian objects (TNOs) discovered during the Canada-France Ecliptic Plane Survey (CFEPS), whose discovery phase ran from early 2003 until early 2007. We obtained characterized observations of 321 sq.deg. of sky to depths in the range g ~23.5 - 24.4 AB mag. We provide a database of 169 TNOs with high-precision dynamical classification and known discovery efficiency. From this, we find that the classical belt is a complex region with sub-structures that go beyond the usual splitting of inner (interior to 3:2 mean-motion resonance [MMR]), main (between 3:2 and 2:1 MMR), and outer (exterior to 2:1 MMR). The main classical belt (a=40--47~AU) needs to be modeled with at least three components: the 'hot' component with a wide inclination distribution and two 'cold' components (stirred and kernel) with much narrower inclination distributions. The hot component must have a significantly shallower absolute magnitude (Hg) distribution than the other two components. With 95% confidence, there are 8000^{+1800}_{-1600} objects in the main belt with Hg <= 8.0, of which 50% are from the hot component, 40% from the stirred component and 10% from the kernel; the hot component's fraction drops rapidly with increasing Hg. Because of this, the apparent population fractions depend on the depth and ecliptic latitude of a trans-neptunian survey.

Mots clés: Kuiper Belt; surveys

Domaines: Planétologie et astrophysique de la terre [astro-ph.EP]; Planétologie et astrophysique de la terre [astro-ph.EP]

Jean-Marc C. Petit, J.J. Kavelaars, B.J. Gladman, R.L. Jones, J.Wm. Parker, et al.. The Canada-France Ecliptic Plane Survey - Full Data Release: The Orbital Structure of the Kuiper Belt. 2011. ⟨hal-00614090⟩