Non-boltzmannian distributions observed in small bodies of the solar system

Abstract

Previous works have shown that some features of small bodies of the Solar System (mass, diameters, rotation periods, and apparent magnitudes) are relatively well modeled by distributions originally derived from Tsallis statistical mechanics. Some of the observed distributions are fitted in almost the entire range of the variables, different from other distributions. We revisit these previous studies and update them with recent data. Our results corroborate the previous ones, – that distributions based on the q-exponential family are usually found in statistical description of these planetary systems –, and reinforce the conjecture that the underlying mechanism that generates these observed data may have a nonextensive nature.