Abstract

TNOs surfaces in the JWST era.

JJ Kavelaars (NRC)

We will explore the constraints on planet formation in our solar system that can be derived via a precise accounting of the surface ice inventories of objects in the trans-Neptunian region. In July 2015 the New Horizons Pluto flyby revealed a much more complex ice environment than had been anticipated. In January 2019 we will fly the New Horizons spacecraft to an encounter with the small Kuiper belt object 2014 MU69. What will we learn from this encounter is currently very speculative as we have nearly no information about the surface of such small members of the Kuiper belt. In the JWST era we will be in a position to acquire spectra and broad-band SEDs for a large sample of TNOs. I will summarize the current understand of such surfaces, as determined from ground and space based surveys, and explore what we may learn in the JWST era.

Talk