2016/08/05 by Ying-Tung Chen, Hsing Wen Lin, Matthew J. Holman +14 · 1 voice
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph.EP
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/2041-8205/827/2/l24
18 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters
arxiv created 2016/08/05 · arxiv published 2016/08/05 · arxiv updated 2016/08/17
Although the majority of Centaurs are thought to have originated in the scattered disk, with the high-inclination members coming from the Oort cloud, the origin of the high inclination component of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) remains uncertain. We report the discovery of a retrograde TNO, which we nickname "Niku", detected by the Pan-STARRS 1 Outer Solar System Survey. Our numerical integrations show that the orbital dynamics of Niku are very similar to that of 2008 KV42 (Drac), with a half-life of ∼ 500 Myr. Comparing similar high inclination TNOs and Centaurs (q > 10 AU, a < 100 AU and i > 60^∘), we find that these objects exhibit a surprising clustering of ascending node, and occupy a common orbital plane. This orbital configuration has high statistical significance: 3.8-σ. An unknown mechanism is required to explain the observed clustering. This discovery may provide a pathway to investigate a possible reservoir of high-inclination objects.