Occultation constraints on solar system formation models

TL;DR

This paper discusses how occultation observations, combined with spacecraft data, can provide new insights into solar system formation by analyzing the shapes, binaries, and spin orientations of Kuiper Belt objects.

Contribution

It proposes that occultation surveys of Cold-Classical Kuiper Belt Objects can significantly advance understanding of early solar system formation processes.

Findings

Occultation data constrains Kuiper Belt object shapes and orientations.

Spacecraft observations of Arrokoth inform formation models.

Surveying CCKBOs can reveal population-wide properties related to formation.

Abstract

The process by which a system of non-luminous bodies form around a star is fundamental to understanding the origins of our own solar system and how it fits into the context of other systems we have begun to study around other stars. Some basics of solar system formation have emerged to describe the process by which dust and gas around a newly formed star evolve into what we see today. The combination of occultation observations and the flyby observations by New Horizons of the Cold-Classical Kuiper Belt Object (CCKBO), (498958) Arrokoth, has provided essential new constraints on formation models through its three-dimensional shape. We present a case that an occultation-driven survey of CCKBOs would provide fundamental new insight into solar system formation processes by measuring population-wide distributions of shape, binarity, and spin-pole orientation as a function of size in this primordial and undisturbed reservoir.