The Surfaces of Small to Mid-Size Plutinos: Evidence of an Association Between Inclination and Surface Type

TL;DR

This study investigates the surface types of small to mid-size plutinos and finds a significant correlation between their orbital inclination and surface class, suggesting a primordial radial distribution or scattering origin.

Contribution

It provides the first statistical evidence linking inclination and surface type in plutinos, supporting a primordial disk partitioning or scattering scenario.

Findings

FaintIR and BrightIR plutinos have statistically distinguishable inclination distributions.

Most high-inclination plutinos (>4.5°) have FaintIR surfaces.

Results suggest a primordial radial partitioning or scattering origin for surface types.

Abstract

Being one of the most populated mean motion resonances (MMR) with Neptune and lying close to the inner boundary of the present day cold classical disk, observations of the orbital and surface class distributions of the plutinos in the 3:2 MMR provide constraints on Neptune's migration and insight into the compositional structure of the pre-migration planetesimal disk. Here, we present observations of the surface reflectance of 43 small to mid-size (H_V >~ 5) transneptunian objects (TNOs) through the grz wavelength range, 14 of which are plutinos. We classify the surfaces of these TNOs using the two-surface class model (FaintIR and BrightIR surface classes) proposed by Fraser and collaborators, where the FaintIR surface class is dominated by cold classicals. Incorporating similar observations of plutinos from the literature for a total sample size of 43 plutinos, we find that the osculating inclination distributions (i_osc) of the FaintIR and BrightIR plutinos are statistically distinguishable at 99.3% significance, where (6/7) of the plutinos with i_osc > 4.5{\deg} have FaintIR surfaces. This is most easily explained if the FaintIR and BrightIR planetesimals were radially partitioned in the primordial planetesimal disk before being captured into the 3:2 resonance. While this could be evidence that the primordial cold classical disk with FaintIR surfaces was broader in the past by ~3 au in the sunward direction, we cannot rule out the alternative explanation that these FaintIR plutinos were scattered from the ~42.5-48 au region from the Sun and captured into the 3:2 resonance.