Dynamically correlated minor bodies in the outer Solar system

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method to identify dynamically correlated minor bodies in the outer Solar system, revealing known and new groups of objects that suggest non-random orbital organization.

Contribution

It presents a new technique combining orbital pole and perihelion data to systematically find correlated minor bodies beyond 25 au in the Solar system.

Findings

Recovered known comet and trans-Neptunian object groups

Identified new candidate groups for further study

Demonstrated the method's effectiveness in revealing orbital correlations

Abstract

The organization of the orbits of most minor bodies in the Solar system seems to follow random patterns, the result of billions of years of chaotic dynamical evolution. Much as heterogeneous orbital behaviour is ubiquitous, dynamically coherent pairs and groups of objects are also present everywhere. Although first studied among the populations of asteroids and comets that inhabit or traverse the inner Solar system, where they are very numerous, at least one asteroid family has been confirmed to exist in the outer Solar system and two other candidates have been proposed in the literature. Here, we perform a systematic search for statistically significant pairs and groups of dynamically correlated objects through those with semimajor axis greater than 25 au, applying a novel technique that uses the angular separations of orbital poles and perihelia together with the differences in time of perihelion passage to single out pairs of relevant objects. Our analysis recovers well-known, dynamically coherent pairs and groups of comets and trans-Neptunian objects and uncovers a number of new ones, prime candidates for further spectroscopic study.