A Study of the dynamics of dust from the Kuiper belt: Spatial distribution and spectral energy distribution

The dust produced in the Kuiper Belt (KB) spreads throughout the Solar System forming a dust disk. We numerically model the orbital evolution of KB dust and estimate its equilibrium spatial distribution and its brightness and spectral energy distributions (SED), assuming greybody absorption and emission by the dust grains. We show that the planets modify the KB disk SED, so potentially we can infer the presence of planets in spatially unresolved debris disks by studying the shape of their SEDs. We point out that there are inherent uncertainties in the prediction of structure in the dust disk, owing to the chaotic dynamics of dust orbital evolution imposed by resonant gravitational perturbations of the planets.

References(18)

Figures(0)

- Astrophys.J. 450 35

- Astron.J. 121 2804

- Icarus 40 1

- Astron.J. 116 2067

- Ann.Rev.Earth Planet.Sci. 22 553

- Astron.J. 109 1867

- NOONE 31 1500

- Icarus 135 469

- Planet.Space Sci. 43 717

- Icarus 124 429

- Icarus 128 354

- Astron.J. 118 580

- Icarus 141 13

- Astrophys.J. 554 L95

- Astron.Astrophys. 310 999

Symplectic maps for the n-body problem

Jack Wisdom
(
- MIT
)
,
Matthew Holman
(
- MIT
)

- Astron.J. 102 (1991) 1528-1538
•
DOI:
- 10.1086/115978

- Astrophys.J. 111 134

- Astron.Astrophys. 329 785