Theses

The solar system is filled with collisional families, each consisting of several objects all generated though a single historical collision. There are hundreds of known familes in the asteroid belt, but only one known family in the Kuiper Belt (an icy, rocky region beyond Neptune). The age of young asteroid collisional families is often determined by using reversed simulations (i.e. backwards integration) of the solar system. This method is not used for discovering young asteroid families and is limited by unpredictable factors unique to the Asteroid Belt (e.g. the Yarkovsky Effect). The Kuiper Belt is absent of these unpredictabilities, and thus it was theorized that backwards integrations could be an advantageous method for both Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) family finding and characterization. Such integrations are ambitious and would require high accuracy over long timescales (∼ billions of years). This thesis outlines work done examining the feasibility of backwards integration as a method of family-finding, and specifically delves into the associated challenges.

Thousands of asteroid-like objects reside in the Kuiper Belt Region. For accurate dynamical classification, the precision of their orbits needs rigorously tested. Using an analysis pipeline we created, we generated 30 statistically-weighted orbital clones for over 2000 Kuiper Belt Objects(KBOs). These orbits are integrated backwards in time 50 Myr. We created a database from the propagated orbits, from which we calculated the proper orbital elements for each KBO. We used the method established by Ragozzine and Brown (2007) to determine each KBOs relation to the dwarf planet Haumea. Currently, we have more than tripled the number of Haumea Family Members established by Ragozzine and Brown (2007). We conclude that other collisional families can befound using similar methods applied to Haumea and the orbital database we created.

This dissertation discusses research that focuses on understanding transneptunian objects (TNOs) using a variety of techniques and approaches. In Chapter 1, I introduce the main concepts used throughout this dissertation and discuss the current understanding of the transneptunian region. In Chapter 2, I discuss my efforts to understand how Neptune's late stages of migration affect the Haumea family, the only known collisional family in the transneptunian region. Using advanced simulations of Neptune migration, I find that the Haumea family can plausibly form before the termination of giant planet migration and show that this extensively mixes the family. The simplest explanation for the formation of Haumea and its family is a slow disruption of a large, primordial binary system. In Chapter 3, I examine the detectability of non-Keplerian effects in the mutual orbits of transneptunian binaries. I find non-Keplerian effects are common, with 20% of TNBs best explained by a non-Keplerian orbit. I also demonstrate that one of the components of TNB (66652) Borasisi-Pabu is a contact binary. In Chapter 4, I examine the non-Keplerian orbits of Hi'iaka and Namaka, the satellites of Haumea, showing that they are strongly affected by both inter-satellite gravitational interactions and precession caused by Haumea's nonspherical gravitational field. Future observations of the Haumea system, combined with non-Keplerian fitting, will sensitively probe Haumea's interior. Lastly, in Chapter 5, I explore the mutual orbits of Cold Classical TNO binaries using non-Keplerian orbit fitting. Out of a sample of 18 binaries, 6 have significantly non-Keplerian orbits, allowing detailed characterization of their system architecture. I find that 3 of these systems are best explained as hierarchical systems, while the remaining 3 are consistent with precession due to the Sun's gravitational influence. The hierarchical systems I find strongly support the streaming instability theory of planetesimal formation.