Trans-Neptunian spectral types

A trans-Neptunian spectral type (or Kuiper Belt spectral type) is assigned to trans-Neptunian objects and, by extension, to other icy small bodies in the solar system, based on their reflectance spectrum and, in some cases, albedo. Spectral types are useful as they provide a first-order description of the surface composition of these distant objects.

In 2025, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) enabled, for the first time, a compositional classification of TNOs using infrared (IR) spectroscopy.^[1][2] This was possible thanks to the unprecedented sensitivity of Webb in the 2–5 μm range, where ices and complex hydrocarbons exhibit diagnostic absorption bands. By applying three independent clustering techniques to a large sample of TNOs, the DiSCo (Discovering the Surface Composition of TNOs) program identified three distinct groups with different spectral features.^[3]

These compositional classes reflect primarily the primordial makeup of the planetesimal disk where TNOs formed, rather than evolutionary processes, although irradiation and volatile loss have left secondary imprints. Thus, this spectral classification provides a direct link between the current Kuiper Belt and the initial conditions of the solar system.^[1]

The Discovering the Surface Composition of TNOs (DiSCo) program observed 54 TNOs and 5 Centaurs with the NIRSpec/Prism mode on JWST. These spectra cover the 0.7–5.3 μm wavelength range with a spectral resolution of 30- 300. This large program applied three independent clustering methods—k-means, hierarchical clustering, and Gaussian mixture modeling—and all consistently identified the same three compositional classes.^[1]

Although spectral differences are present across the full wavelength range, the classification was named according to the distinctive shape of the 3 μm region, which is the most diagnostic for a non-expert observer.^[1]

The Bowl-type spectra (25% of the DiSCo sample) display a broad, concave absorption feature centered near 3 μm, resembling the shape of a bowl. Their surfaces are dominated by H₂O ice mixed with dark material (likely silicate-rich dust). This class shows water-ice absorption bars at 1.5, 1.65, 2.02, 3.0, 4.5 μm and a fresnel peak at 3.1 μm, suggesting prevalence of the crystalline phase of water ice on the surface of TNOs. This class shows weak signatures of other ices such as CO₂. They are interpreted as objects that formed in the inner regions of the primordial planetesimal disk, where water ice was the dominant condensable volatile. The Bowl-type exist along all the size range of the DiSCo sample and display the less red and darker surfaces in the visible wavelengths. Bowl-type can also be explained as "Dicy" surfaces, because of the mixture of dust and ice, as models of Bowl-type centaurs show.^[2]

The Double-Dip type exhibits two adjacent absorption minima in the 3 μm region, giving the appearance of a double feature. Their spectra reveal a clear dominance of CO₂, ¹³CO₂ and CO ices, along with irradiation products such as light hydrocarbons. These surfaces point to formation at intermediate distances in the disk, where CO₂ was stable and incorporated in large quantities. Carbon monoxide shows up as a by-product of irradiation of CO₂.^[4] The Double-Dip type is the more abundant in the DiSco sample (43%), and displays the lowest spectral dispersion in the sub-group. All the dynamically detached TNOs are Double-Dip.^[1]

The Cliff-type spectra (32% of the DiSCo sample) are characterized by a steep drop ("cliff") in reflectance shortward of 3 μm, followed by strong absorptions consistent with methanol (CH₃OH) and complex organics, including -NH bearing materials. They show the reddest spectral slopes in the visible, consistent with abundant irradiated hydrocarbons. These surfaces are the most diverse in the sample and group into two sub-classes: Cliff-1 and Cliff-2.^[5] The region between 1.2 and 2.6 μm is especially diagnostic. Cliff-1 displays multiple absorption bands of CH₃OH and complex organics with -OH, -CH, and -NH groups, as well as CO₂, CO, and possibly residual H₂O produced by irradiation of methanol and CO₂. Cliff-2, in contrast, shows fewer ices, lacking absorptions in the 2.2–2.6 μm region but it shows broad absorptions in the longer wavelengths attributed to materials containing nitriles (C-N or C≡N). All the cold-classical TNOs are Cliff-2 type. These differences suggest formation farther out in the disk, in regions rich in methanol and complex carbon chemistry. The existence of such subgroups indicates that spectral diversity among TNOs is not only shaped by later evolutionary processes (irradiation, volatile loss), but also reflects primordial heterogeneities in the outer solar nebula.^[5]

Additionally, a fourth type was defined when studying the centaur population, the Shallow-type spectra.^[2] They are characterized by a simple but very weak absorption around 3 μm, resembling the bowl-type but with much shallower depth. However, their spectra differ markedly from the median bowl-type TNO spectrum: not only the 3 μm band is shallower, the H₂O ice bands at 1.5, 2.0, and 4.5 μm and the 3.10 μm Fresnel peak are weak, and the CO₂ fundamental band is faint (<10%). This class is absent among TNOs, suggesting that it may arise from evolutionary effects linked to thermal processing and the development of a surface dust mantle. Remarkably, the spectra of Jupiter Trojans^[6] bear strong similarities to the Shallow-type, showing a reddish continuum from 0.9 to 5.4 μm combined with a broad, shallow absorption near 3 μm.