Program: GN-2009B-Q-60

Long period Kuiper Belt binaries - being difficult to create and very sensitive to perturbation - yield unique insight into the physical properties of these distant comets as well as probing the dynamical and collisional conditions over the history of the outer Solar System. The orbital, compositional and statistical properties of these binaries constrain the total mass and dynamical history of the various populations, with important implications for theories of Solar System formation. This proposal is a continuation of a survey (previously awarded GN-2009A-Q-17) to track and characterize the mutual orbits of all known wide-separation, equal-sized Kuiper Belt Binary systems that have poorly constrained orbits. Accurately measuring the orbits of binary systems with a series of high-SN optical (GMOS) observations allows determination of mass and system angular momentum, which provide constraints on formation mechanisms.