Small Cold Classical TNOs as Witnesses of Outer Nebular Chemistry

We propose to observe a sample of nine Cold Classical TNOs that are intermediate in size between the very small object Arrokoth explored by NASA's New Horizons mission and much larger objects observed by JWST during Cycle 1. Our purpose is to test whether Arrokoth's anomalously high abundance of methanol ice relative to water ice is typical of small Cold Classical TNOs, pointing to formation in a region of distinctly different nebular chemistry beyond the CO snow line. To learn more about this region of the nebula as well as potential size-dependent processes affecting objects that formed there, we divide our sample between two slices. The 1st slice matches Arrokoth's heliocentric distance, while varying the objects' sizes. The 2nd slice consists of objects at varying heliocentric distance but all of the same size. These two slices will enable us to determine whether or not there are systematic trends with size or with heliocentric distance, thereby shedding light on the processes responsible.