JWST/NIRSpec Observations of Salacia-Actaea and Máni: Exploring Population-level Trends among Water-ice-rich Kuiper Belt Objects
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2025
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| author | Wong, Ian Holler, Bryan J. Protopapa, Silvia Guilbert-Lepoutre, Aurélie Grundy, William M. Stansberry, John A. Hammel, Heidi B. Milam, Stefanie N. Brunetto, Rosario Emery, Joshua P. Fernández-Valenzuela, Estela Pinilla-Alonso, Noemí |
| author_facet | Wong, Ian Holler, Bryan J. Protopapa, Silvia Guilbert-Lepoutre, Aurélie Grundy, William M. Stansberry, John A. Hammel, Heidi B. Milam, Stefanie N. Brunetto, Rosario Emery, Joshua P. Fernández-Valenzuela, Estela Pinilla-Alonso, Noemí |
| contents | We present observations of the midsized Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) Salacia$-$Actaea and Máni, obtained with the Near-Infrared Spectrograph on JWST. The satellite Actaea was fully blended with Salacia at the spatial resolution of the integral field unit, and we extracted the combined spectrum. The 0.7$-$5.1 $μ$m reflectance spectra of Salacia$-$Actaea and Máni display prominent water-ice absorption bands at 1.5, 2, 3, and 4$-$5 $μ$m. The $ν_{3}$ fundamental vibrational band of carbon dioxide ice at 4.25 $μ$m is present in both spectra. From a quantitative band-depth analysis of the entire current JWST spectroscopic sample of water-ice-rich KBOs, we find strong evidence for a positive covariance between relative water-ice abundance and size, which may indicate the emergent impacts of internal differentiation and cryovolcanic production of surface water ice on midsized KBOs. A detailed look at the distribution of 2 and 3 $μ$m band depths suggests additional sources of variability, such as different water-ice grain sizes. In addition, we report an apparent transition in the carbon dioxide band depth at object diameters of roughly 300$-$500 km, with larger objects showing systematically weaker absorptions, although selection effects within the sample do not allow us to confidently distinguish between a size-dependent phenomenon and a correlation with dynamical class. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_17101 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | JWST/NIRSpec Observations of Salacia-Actaea and Máni: Exploring Population-level Trends among Water-ice-rich Kuiper Belt Objects Wong, Ian Holler, Bryan J. Protopapa, Silvia Guilbert-Lepoutre, Aurélie Grundy, William M. Stansberry, John A. Hammel, Heidi B. Milam, Stefanie N. Brunetto, Rosario Emery, Joshua P. Fernández-Valenzuela, Estela Pinilla-Alonso, Noemí Earth and Planetary Astrophysics We present observations of the midsized Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) Salacia$-$Actaea and Máni, obtained with the Near-Infrared Spectrograph on JWST. The satellite Actaea was fully blended with Salacia at the spatial resolution of the integral field unit, and we extracted the combined spectrum. The 0.7$-$5.1 $μ$m reflectance spectra of Salacia$-$Actaea and Máni display prominent water-ice absorption bands at 1.5, 2, 3, and 4$-$5 $μ$m. The $ν_{3}$ fundamental vibrational band of carbon dioxide ice at 4.25 $μ$m is present in both spectra. From a quantitative band-depth analysis of the entire current JWST spectroscopic sample of water-ice-rich KBOs, we find strong evidence for a positive covariance between relative water-ice abundance and size, which may indicate the emergent impacts of internal differentiation and cryovolcanic production of surface water ice on midsized KBOs. A detailed look at the distribution of 2 and 3 $μ$m band depths suggests additional sources of variability, such as different water-ice grain sizes. In addition, we report an apparent transition in the carbon dioxide band depth at object diameters of roughly 300$-$500 km, with larger objects showing systematically weaker absorptions, although selection effects within the sample do not allow us to confidently distinguish between a size-dependent phenomenon and a correlation with dynamical class. |
| title | JWST/NIRSpec Observations of Salacia-Actaea and Máni: Exploring Population-level Trends among Water-ice-rich Kuiper Belt Objects |
| topic | Earth and Planetary Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.17101 |