Circumbinary Chaos: Using Pluto's Newest Moon to Constrain the Masses of Nix & Hydra

TL;DR

This study uses the orbit of Pluto's moon P4 to set upper limits on the masses of Nix and Hydra, revealing they are likely icy and providing insights into circumbinary system stability.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method of constraining moon masses in the Pluto system through orbital stability analysis of P4.

Findings

Nix and Hydra masses likely do not exceed 5e16 kg and 9e16 kg.

P4 remains stable only if its eccentricity is less than 0.02.

The system's stability constraints suggest Nix and Hydra are icy with albedos over 0.3.

Abstract

The Pluto system provides a unique local laboratory for the study of binaries with multiple low mass companions. In this paper, we study the orbital stability of P4, the most recently discovered moon in the Pluto system. This newfound companion orbits near the plane of the Pluto-Charon binary, roughly halfway between the two minor moons Nix and Hydra. We use a suite of few body integrations to constrain the masses of Nix and Hydra, and the orbital parameters of P4. For the system to remain stable over the age of the Solar System, the masses of Nix and Hydra likely do not exceed 5e16 kg and 9e16 kg, respectively. These upper limits assume a fixed mass ratio between Nix and Hydra at the value implied by their median optical brightness. Our study finds that stability is more sensitive to their total mass and that a downward revision of Charon's eccentricity (from our adopted value of 0.0035) is unlikely to significantly affect our conclusions. Our upper limits are an order of magnitude below existing astrometric limits on the masses of Nix and Hydra. For a density at least that of ice, the albedos of Nix and Hydra would exceed 0.3. This constraint implies they are icy, as predicted by giant impact models. Even with these low masses, P4 only remains stable if its eccentricity e < 0.02. The 5:1 commensurability with Charon is particularly unstable, Combining stability constraints with the observed mean motion places the preferred orbit for P4 just exterior to the 5:1 resonance. These predictions will be tested when the New Horizons satellite visits Pluto. Based on the results for the Pluto-Charon system, we expect that circumbinary, multi-planet systems will be more widely spaced than their singleton counterparts. Further, circumbinary exoplanets close to the three-body stability boundary, such as those found by Kepler, are less likely to have other companions nearby.