Science JournalFeeds

Publication year: 2010
Source: Icarus, In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 29 April 2010

Alex H., Parker , J.J., Kavelaars

Two populations of minor bodies in the outer Solar System remain particularly elusive: Scattered Disk objects and Sedna-like objects. These populations are important dynamical tracers, and understanding the details of their spatial- and size-distributions will enhance our understanding of the formation and on-going evolution of the Solar System. By using newly-derived limits on the maximum heliocentric distances that recent pencil-beam surveys for Trans-Neptunian Objects were sensitive to, we determine new upper limits on the total numbers of distant SDOs and Sedna-like objects. While generally consistent with populations estimated from wide-area surveys, we show that for magnitude-distribution slopes of α [...]

Publication year: 2010
Source: Icarus, In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 30 April 2010

Mikael, Beuthe

Contraction, expansion and despinning have been common in the past evolution of solar system bodies. These processes deform the lithosphere until it breaks along faults. Their characteristic tectonic patterns have thus been sought for on all planets and large satellites with an ancient surface. While the search for despinning tectonics has not been conclusive, there is good observational evidence on several bodies for the global faulting pattern associated with contraction or expansion, though the pattern is seldom isotropic as predicted. The cause of the non-random orientation of the faults has been attributed either to regional stresses or to the [...]