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The Cybele region, located between the 2J:-1A and 5J:-3A mean-motion resonances, is adjacent and exterior to the asteroid main belt. An increasing density of three-body resonances makes the region between the Cybele and Hilda populations dynamically unstable, so that the Cybele zone could be considered the last outpost of an extended main belt. The presence of binary asteroids with large primaries and small secondaries suggested that asteroid families should be found in this region, but only relatively recently the first dynamical groups were identified in this area. Among these, the Sylvia group has been proposed to be one of the oldest families in the extended main belt. In this work we identify families in the Cybele region in the context of the local dynamics and non-gravitational forces such as the Yarkovsky and stochastic Yarkovsky-O'Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack (YORP) effects. We confirm the detection of the new Helga group at ≅ 3.65 au, which could extend the outer boundary of the Cybele region up to the 5J:-3A mean-motion resonance. We obtain age estimates for the four families, Sylvia, Huberta, Ulla, and Helga, currently detectable in the Cybele region, using Monte Carlo methods that include the effects of stochastic YORP and variability of the solar luminosity. The Sylvia family should be T= 1220 ± 40 Myr old, with a possible older secondary solution. Any collisional Cybele group formed prior to the Late Heavy Bombardment would have been most likely completely dispersed in the jumping Jupiter scenario of planetary migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work we combine several constraints provided by the crater records on Arrokoth and the worlds of the Pluto system to compute the size-frequency distribution (SFD) of the crater production function for craters with diameter D ≲ 10 km. For this purpose, we use a Kuiper belt objects (KBO) population model calibrated on telescopic surveys, that describes also the evolution of the KBO population during the early Solar System. We further calibrate this model using the crater record on Pluto, Charon and Nix. Using this model, we compute the impact probability on Arrokoth, integrated over the age of the Solar System. This probability is then used together with other observational constraints to determine the slope of the crater-production function on Arrokoth. These constraints are: (i) the spatial density of sub-km craters, (ii) the absence of craters with 1 < D < 7 km; (iii) the existence of a single crater with D > 7 km. In addition, we use our Kuiper belt model also to compare the impact rates and velocities of KBOs on Arrokoth with those on Charon, integrated over the crater retention ages of their respective surfaces. This allows us to establish a relationship between the spatial density of sub-km craters on Arrokoth and of D ~ 20 km craters on Charon. Together, all these considerations suggest the crater production function on these worlds has a cumulative power law slope of −1.5 < q < − 1.2. Converted into a projectile SFD slope, we find −1.2 < q KBO < − 1.0. These values are close to the cumulative slope of main belt asteroids in the 0.2–2 km range, a population in collisional equilibrium (Bottke et al., 2020). For KBOs, however, this slope appears to extend from ~2 km down to objects a few tens of meters in diameter, as inferred from sub-km craters on Arrokoth. From the measurement of the dust density in the Kuiper belt made by the New Horizons mission, we predict that the SFD of the KBOs becomes steep again below ~10–30 m. All these considerations strongly indicate that the size distribution of the KBO population is in collisional equilibrium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Themis is an old and statistically robust asteroid family populating the outer main belt, and resulting from a catastrophic collision that took place 2.5 ± 1.0 Gyr ago. Within the old Themis family a young sub-family, Beagle, formed less than 10 Myr ago, has been identified. We present the results of a spectroscopic survey in the visible and near infrared range of 22 Themis and 8 Beagle families members. The Themis members investigated exhibit a wide range of spectral behaviors, including asteroids with blue/neutral and moderately red spectra, while the younger Beagle family members look spectrally bluer than the Themis ones and they have a much smaller spectral slope variability. Four Themis members, including (24) Themis, have absorption bands centered at 0.68–0.73 μ m indicating the presence of aqueously altered minerals. The best meteorite spectral analogues found for both Themis and Beagle families members are carbonaceous chondrites having experienced different degrees of aqueous alteration, prevalently CM2 but also CV3 and CI, and some of them are chondrite samples being unusual or heated. The presence of aqueous altered materials on the asteroids surfaces and the meteorite matches indicate that the parent body of the Themis family experienced mild thermal metamorphism in the past. We extended the spectral analysis including the data available in the literature on Themis and Beagle families members, and we looked for correlations between spectral behavior and physical parameters using the albedo and size values derived from the WISE data. The analysis of this larger sample confirms the spectral diversity within the Themis family and that Beagle members tend to be bluer and to have an higher albedo. The differences between the two families may be partially explained by space weathering processes, which act on these primitive surfaces in a similar way than on S-type asteroids, i.e. producing reddening and darkening. However we see several Themis members having albedos and spectral slopes similar to the young Beagle members. Alternative scenarios are proposed including heterogeneity in the parent body having a compositional gradient with depth, and/or the survival of projectile fragments having a different composition than the parent body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]