Spectral Modeling of the 3-μm Region of Cliff-Type Trans-Neptunian Objects

McClure, Lucas; Emery, Joshua; Pinilla-Alonso, Noemí; Brunetto, Rosario; Hénault, Elsa; Cryan, Sasha; De Prà, Mario N.; Holler, Bryan; Licandro, Javier; De Souza Feliciano, Ana Carolina; Lorenzi, Vania; Pendleton, Yvonne; Cruikshank, Dale; Müller, Thomas; Stansberry, John; Schambeau, Charles; Harvison, Brittany; Guilbert-Lepoutre, Aurelie; Peixinho, Nuno; Bannister, Michele; Wong, Ian
Referencia bibliográfica

AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts

Fecha de publicación:
10
2024
Número de autores
21
Número de autores del IAC
1
Número de citas
0
Número de citas referidas
0
Descripción
Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) harbor some of the most pristine materials in the Solar System. JWST observations of TNOs from Cycle 1's campaign of "Discovering the composition of the TNOs" (DisCo-TNOs; #2418) provided the first, broad infrared (IR; 0.9—5 μm) coverage of these small-bodies. Spectral analyses of the over 50 DisCo-TNOs targets demonstrated that TNOs separate into three major taxonomic types dubbed "Bowl," "Double-Dip," and "Cliff" (Pinilla-Alonso et al. 2024). All three display very deep, broad absorptions near 3 μm, attributable to O-H stretch. Additionally, Bowl spectra are dominated by features of H2O ice, whereas Double-Dip show evidence of very strong CO2 and light hydrocarbons. The Cliff-Type is spectrally characterized by a steep drop-off ("cliff-face;" 2.6 – 3.0 μm) in reflectance around 2.6 μm to form a deep 3-μm feature, beyond which low reflectance is observed than for the other two types. The Cliff-Type shows a higher abundance of volatile materials (CH3OH, -CH, -NH) compared to the other two TNO types, suggesting a formation location farther from the Sun. Some – though not all – Cliff-Type objects are also characterized by redder Near-IR (1.29—2.2 μm) slopes, methanol-like features at 2.27 and 2.34 μm, and deep CO2 overtone bands at 2.72-μm. Spectral modeling is a dependable method of characterizing compositional differences/trends within Cliff-Types. In our work, we present evidence of cliff-face differences, with a subset of Cliff-Types displaying slightly broader 3-μm bands. We present Hapke-based, spectral model fits that were used to investigate how mixtures of H2O, NH3, CO2, CO, CH3OH, HCN, tholins, and other hydrocarbons control the cliff-face of the 3-μm feature. Our preliminary results suggest methanol plays a relatively larger role in the structure of the cliff-face of a subset of Cliff-Types. We note the roles of the other materials in our modeled mixtures. We also highlight how our spectral modeling results suggest that compositional differences within the Cliff-Type may be attributable to differences in formation, surface evolution, and/or dynamical history.