Bernardinelli, PH;
Bernstein, GM;
Jindal, N;
Abbott, TMC;
Aguena, M;
Alves, O;
Andrade-Oliveira, F;
... Zhang, Y; + view all
(2023)
Photometry of Outer Solar System Objects from the Dark Energy Survey. I. Photometric Methods, Light-curve Distributions, and Trans-Neptunian Binaries.
Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series
, 269
(1)
, Article 18. 10.3847/1538-4365/acf6bf.
Preview |
PDF
Bernardinelli_2023_ApJS_269_18.pdf - Published Version Download (2MB) | Preview |
Abstract
We report the methods of and initial scientific inferences from the extraction of precision photometric information for the >800 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) discovered in the images of the Dark Energy Survey (DES). Scene-modeling photometry is used to obtain shot-noise-limited flux measures for each exposure of each TNO, with background sources subtracted. Comparison of double-source fits to the pixel data with single-source fits are used to identify and characterize two binary TNO systems. A Markov Chain Monte Carlo method samples the joint likelihood of the intrinsic colors of each source as well as the amplitude of its flux variation, given the time series of multiband flux measurements and their uncertainties. A catalog of these colors and light-curve amplitudes A is included with this publication. We show how to assign a likelihood to the distribution q(A) of light-curve amplitudes in any subpopulation. Using this method, we find decisive evidence (i.e., evidence ratio <0.01) that cold classical (CC) TNOs with absolute magnitude 6 < H r < 8.2 are more variable than the hot classical (HC) population of the same H r , reinforcing theories that the former form in situ and the latter arise from a different physical population. Resonant and scattering TNOs in this H r range have variability consistent with either the HCs or CCs. DES TNOs with H r < 6 are seen to be decisively less variable than higher-H r members of any dynamical group, as expected. More surprising is that detached TNOs are decisively less variable than scattering TNOs, which requires them to have distinct source regions or some subsequent differential processing.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Photometry of Outer Solar System Objects from the Dark Energy Survey. I. Photometric Methods, Light-curve Distributions, and Trans-Neptunian Binaries |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3847/1538-4365/acf6bf |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/acf6bf |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10182366 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
