Recent arrivals to the main asteroid belt

TL;DR

This study identifies potential recent arrivals to the main asteroid belt through data mining, suggesting some may originate from regions like the Oort cloud, interstellar space, or Centaur orbits, and examines their possible dynamical pathways.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel data mining approach to identify and analyze recent asteroid belt arrivals and their potential origins, including interstellar space and distant Solar System regions.

Findings

Identified multiple candidate asteroids that may have recently entered the main belt.

Some candidates could originate from the Oort cloud, interstellar space, or Centaur regions.

Most newcomers likely have origins in Centaur orbital space.

Abstract

The region where the main asteroid belt is now located may have started empty, to become populated early in the history of the Solar system with material scattered outward by the terrestrial planets and inward by the giant planets. These dynamical pathways toward the main belt may still be active today. Here, we present results from a data mining experiment aimed at singling out present-day members of the main asteroid belt that may have reached the belt during the last few hundred years. Probable newcomers include 2003 BM1, 2007 RS62, 457175 (2008 GO98), 2010 BG18, 2010 JC58, 2010 JV52, 2010 KS6, 2010 LD74, 2010 OX38, 2011 QQ99, 2013 HT149, 2015 BH103, 2015 BU525, 2015 RO127, 2015 RS139, 2016 PC41, 2016 UU231, 2020 SA75, 2020 UO43, and 2021 UJ5, all of them in the outer belt. Some of these candidates may have been inserted in their current orbits after experiencing relatively recent close encounters with Jupiter. We also investigated the likely source regions of such new arrivals. Asteroid 2020 UO43, if real, has a non-negligible probability of having an origin in the Oort cloud or even interstellar space. Asteroid 2003 BM1 may have come from the neighborhood of Uranus. However, most newcomers -- including 457175, 2011 QQ99, and 2021 UJ5 -- might have had an origin in Centaur orbital space. The reliability of these findings is assessed within the context of the uncertainties of the available orbit determinations.