English

Corralling a distant planet with extreme resonant Kuiper belt objects

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2016-06-22 v3

Abstract

The four longest period Kuiper belt objects have orbital periods close to integer ratios with each other. A hypothetical planet with orbital period \sim17,117 years, semimajor axis \sim665 AU, would have N/1 and N/2 period ratios with these four objects. The orbital geometries and dynamics of resonant orbits constrain the orbital plane, the orbital eccentricity and the mass of such a planet, as well as its current location in its orbital path.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1603.02196,
  title  = {Corralling a distant planet with extreme resonant Kuiper belt objects},
  author = {Renu Malhotra and Kathryn Volk and Xianyu Wang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1603.02196},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

Shortened version with a few changes in response to peer review, in press at ApJL. Corrected minor errors, Fig 4 is now higher resolution, Fig 5 is now in RA/Dec

R2 v1 2026-06-22T13:05:32.270Z