Updated taxonomy of trans-neptunian objects and centaurs: Influence of albedo

•We present updated classification of 258 trans-neptunian objects and centaurs based on their visible and near-infrared colors.•Increasing quality of color measurements resulted in smaller scatter on color–color plots and better separation of classes.•We show that albedos have small impact on classi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Icarus (New York, N.Y. 1962) N.Y. 1962), 2015-04, Vol.250, p.482-491
Main Authors: Belskaya, Irina N., Barucci, Maria A., Fulchignoni, Marcello, Dovgopol, Anatolij N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Albedo
Astrophysics
Centaurs
Classification
Inclination
Mineralogy
Orbitals
Physics
Scatter
Separation
Taxonomy
Trans-Neptunian objects
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:•We present updated classification of 258 trans-neptunian objects and centaurs based on their visible and near-infrared colors.•Increasing quality of color measurements resulted in smaller scatter on color–color plots and better separation of classes.•We show that albedos have small impact on classification except for the separation of the brightest objects. We present updated classification of 258 trans-neptunian objects (TNOs) and centaurs based on their visible and near-infrared colors. With increasing quality and quantity of color measurements we distinguished again four classes of objects confirming the previous classification into the BB, BR, IR, and RR taxonomic groups. Increasing accuracy of color measurements results in smaller scatter on color–color plots and better separation of classes. Albedos do not have any noticeable impact on the classification except for the separation of a sub-group of the brightest bodies inside the BB group. On the other side, all the BR objects for which albedo estimations are available have dark surfaces, while the IR and RR groups contain objects both with dark and moderate albedos. Analysis of the distribution of the groups with respect to their orbital parameters confirmed previous findings. The BB and RR groups are populated mainly with classical objects having generally high or low orbital inclinations, respectively. Any centaur belongs to the IR group and only one centaur is classified as BB: this is a confirmation of the existence of two separate classes in this population.
ISSN:0019-1035
1090-2643
DOI:10.1016/j.icarus.2014.12.004