SBDynT: Characterizing the Solar System Small Bodies by Proper Elements and Chaos

The dynamics of small bodies in the solar system can provide insights into the formation and evolutionary processes that have shaped the solar system since its initial formation 4.6 billion years ago. Recent and upcoming surveys of the solar system, such as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), are projected to discover thousands of new Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), and millions of new asteroids in the solar system, all of which will require dynamical classification. We are developing a new dynamical software which we currently call “SBDynT” (Small Body Dynamics Tool) which will be used to calculate a number of dynamical indicators for small bodies. The code and our results will be made available to the entire planetary science community for on demand dynamical classification.

I’ll present early results with SBDynT, such as producing proper orbital elements for a number of TNOs and Asteroids, and comparing these proper element results to the AstDys database, the only current proper elements catalog. I’ll also present the production of chaos indicators for each of these small bodies, and will show correlations between chaos in the solar system and mean motion resonance with nearby planets.