6 Naoz, Perets & Ragozzine 3.2. Inclinations 3.1. Eccentricities (Perets & Naoz 2009). In essence this effect rapidly low- ers the eccentricity of BMPs and shortens their period. These mechanisms are effective in isolated systems (although including the Sun). In collisional systems, encounters between BMPs and other minor planets or BMPs can change the orbital parameters of the BMPs. The distribution of inclinations in such systems is likely to be randomized, where as the eccentricity distribution is expected to approach high eccentricities, on average (Funato et al. 2004), possibly producing a thermal like distribution (Heggie 1975). In the following we discuss the implications of the ob- served distributions in the light of the dynamical pro- cesses discussed above. The observed eccentricity distribution of BMPs (Figs 1) shows both low (and zero) eccentricity BMPs as well as high eccentricity ones (up to 0.82 and 0.22 for binary TNOs and asteroids, respectively). The clear correla- tion between the eccentricity and the semi-major axis of the BMPs (eccentricity-period distribution of BMPs is shown in fig 3), reminiscent of other binary populations (e.g. binary stars, exoplanets; Mazeh 2008) indicates that low eccentricity BMPs are likely to be produced by tidal circularization, which become important for BMPs of small separations. In principle, the period eccentric- ity distribution can be used to constrain tidal evolution theories and/or the physical parameters of BMPs which affect the tidal evolution (e.g. the Q parameter, and its evolution Efroimsky & Lainey 2007). Although current statistics are still too small to produce strong constraints on such theories/parameters, one can already check spe- cific tidal evolution cases (see e. g. the theoretical lines shown in fig. 3). The apparent lack of zero and low ( < 0 . 2 ) eccentric- ity binary TNOs at larger separations (where tidal forces are not effective) suggests that either the formation pro- cesses of binary TNOs are not inclined to form them at such eccentricities, e.g. in the EEB and CAC scenarios for BMPs formation, and/or that later dynamical evo- lution changed their eccentricities. The current sample of binary TNOs, showing the lack of many high eccen- tricity BMPs ( e > 0 . 8 ), is already large enough to rule out the exchange formation scenario for binary TNOs as formulated by Funato et al. (2004) as the main single process producing their current distribution. We note that the lack of high eccentricity for the largest binary TNOs together with the frequent intermediate eccentric- ity population of the lower mass binary TNOs could be consistent with a collisional scenario. In this pro- cess EEBs are made from smaller remnant bodies follow- ing a collision where as the bigger remnants may form SMATs with lower eccentricities in non-disruptive coll- sions (Durda et al. 2004). The eccentricity distribution of binary asteroids ap- pears to differ from that of binary TNOs, with a larger fraction of binaries at shorter more circular orbits. How- ever the general trend is similar to that of binary TNOs, showing close binaries to typically have more circular or- bits and wider ones to have higher eccentricities. Such distribution could be consistent with that of binary TNOs, given the selection effects (e.g. the difficulty in finding close small sized binary TNOs) and the small statistics. Moreover, the lack of wider period binaries with higher eccentricities is likely related to the much smaller phase space available to binary asteroids, due to their smalle Hill radii (see fig. 3). The binary aster- oids distribution may therefore also be suggestive of a collisional origin. The known collisional families in the asteroid belt give further support for this scenario. The distribution of BMPs inclinations shows a large fraction of them to have high inclinations. The inclina- tions of binary asteroids are consistent with a random distribution of inclinations (flat in cos i ). The underly- ing true inclination distribution of the larger sample of binary TNOs can not be derived directly (given the de- generate inclinations solutions for most of the sample). Nevertheless, we can statistically verify whether it too could be consistent with a flat distribution. To do so, we consider all the possible inclination distributions of the binary TNOa (i.e. 2 $^{N$_{deg}$}$, where N$_{deg}$ = 9 is the number of orbits with two degenerate solutions used). We then use the Two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to check whether each possible distribution is consistent with it being drawn from a flat distribution (in cos i ). We find that all of these distributions are consistent with an isotropic distribution. We conclude that the inclinations of both binary TNOs and asteroids are consistent with a random distribution of inclinations (flat in cos i ); clearly BMPs are not restricted to planar configurations as sug- gested by Goldreich et al. (2002) and Schlichting & Sari (2008). In some scenarios (Goldreich et al. 2002), BMPs are formed in a thin planetesimals disk with low velocity dispersion. It was suggested that BMPs with high in- clinations are therefore not likely to be produced under these conditions. However, three body encounters can easily change the inclinations of BMPs, as these could be highly chaotic, and produce highly inclined orbits even under such conditions (Perets & Kupi, in prep.). Col- lisoinaly formed BMPs are also likely to produce a range of inclination, as material could be ejected in a wide fan, and specifcially EEB could have random inclinations (however further studies in this direction are required). The high inclinations of BMPs could therefore be sugges- tive of the collisional environment at which BMPs were formed. Note that since encounters between BMPs and other single planetesimal can easily erase the initial dis- tribution of BMPs inclinations, predictions of the inclina- tion distribution such as suggested by Schlichting & Sari (2008), which do not seem to be consistent with the cur- rently observed distribution of inclinations (i.e. non pla- nar configurations), are not likely to constrain formation scenarios of BMPs. We note that the combined processes of secular Kozai evolution (due to perturbations by the sun $^{5}$) and tidal friction (KCTF) can lead to specific correlations between inclinations and separations of BMPs (as well as eccen- tricities). These processes and the currently observed re- lations they may have produced, have been discussed in detail elsewhere (Perets & Naoz 2009, see also Ragozzine & Brown, in prep.). We find that the probability for the 5 Note that alternatively/in addition planets or even a third companion in triple minor planets systems could also produce such perturbations.