Small solar system objects on highly inclined orbits: Surface colours and lifetimes

TL;DR

This study investigates the surface colors and orbital lifetimes of high-inclination small solar system objects, revealing their surface similarities to certain distant objects and their chaotic, short-lived orbital nature.

Contribution

The paper provides new photometric data for six high-inclination objects and analyzes their surface properties and orbital dynamics, highlighting their similarity to TNOs and Centaurs and their chaotic orbital behavior.

Findings

High-inclination objects have moderately red surfaces similar to TNOs and Centaurs.

No ultra-red material was detected on high-inclination asteroids.

Orbits are highly chaotic with short, unpredictable lifetimes.

Abstract

Less than one percent of the discovered small solar system objects have highly inclined orbits ($i>60^{\circ}$), and revolve around the Sun on near-polar or retrograde orbits. The origin and evolutionary history of these objects are not yet clear. In this work we study the surface properties and orbital dynamics of selected high-inclination objects. BVRI photometric observations were performed in 2019-2020 using the 2.0m telescope at the Terskol Observatory and the 2.6m telescope at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory. Additionally, we searched for high-inclination objects in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Pan-STARRS. The dynamics of the selected objects was studied using numerical simulations. We obtained new photometric observations of six high-inclination objects. All of the objects have similar $B-V$, $V-R$, $R-I$ colours, which are close to those of moderately red TNOs and grey Centaurs. The photometric data that were extracted from the all-sky surveys also correspond to moderately red surfaces of high-inclination objects. No signs of ultra-red material on the surface of high-inclination asteroids were found, which supports the results of previous works. The comet C/2018 DO4 (Lemmon) revealed some complex morphology with structures that could be associated with particles that were ejected from the cometary nucleus. For objects 2013 LU28, 2015 KZ120, and 2020 EP we estimated future and past lifetimes on their orbits. It appears that the orbits of considered objects are strongly chaotic, and with the available accuracy of the orbital elements no reliable predictions can be made about their distant past or future. The lifetimes of high-inclination objects turned out to be highly non-sensitive to the precision of the orbital elements, and to the Yarkovsky orbital drift.