Scientists have discovered a new family of bodies in the Kuiper belt that they think are the remnants of a catastrophic collision with the belt's third largest object, 2003 EL61. The discovery may have implications for understanding the dynamics of the outer Solar System and the surfaces of Kuiper belt objects.
Michael E. Brown and colleagues found bodies with similar surface properties and orbital dynamics to the dwarf-planet-sized object 2003 EL61. From this, they inferred that something hit this large Kuiper belt object and created a family of objects, along with its satellite system.
There are many families of asteroids in the main asteroid belt that are the remnants of a catastrophic impact. But in the region beyond Neptune, no collisionally created families have hitherto been found. The newly spotted objects are probably fragments of the ejected ice mantle of 2003 EL61.
CONTACT
Michael E. Brown (California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 626 395 8423; E-mail: mbrown@caltech.edu
Alessandro Morbidelli (Laboratoire Cassiopee, Nice, France) N&V author
Tel: +33 4 92 00 31 26; E-mail: morby@obs-nice.fr
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