A collision in 2009 as the origin of the debris trail of asteroid P/2010 A2

Snodgrass, C.; Tubiana, C.; Vincent, Jean‐Baptiste; Sierks, H.; Hviid, S. F.; Moissl, R.; Boehnhardt, H.; Barbieri, C.; Koschny, D.; Lamy, Philippe; Rickman, H.; Rodrigo, R.; Carry, B.; Lowry, S. C.; Laird, Ryan; Weissman, P. R.; Fitzsimmons, A.; Marchi, S.

doi:10.1038/nature09453

Cited by 108 publications

(135 citation statements)

References 20 publications

(37 reference statements)

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“…Placing a telescope in the asteroid belt has the advantage that all sizes of asteroid can be targeted, and also presents unique viewing geometries. For MBCs, such view points can be useful to characterise dust tails, as was demonstrated by imaging P/2010 A2 with the OSIRIS cameras on Rosetta (Snodgrass et al 2010b)-any camera on any mission passing through the asteroid belt can potentially contribute to MBC dust trail characterisation as a target of opportunity.…”

Section: Space Telescopesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Main Belt Comets and ice in the Solar System

Snodgrass

Agarwal

Combi

et al. 2017

Astron Astrophys Rev

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We review the evidence for buried ice in the asteroid belt; specifically the questions around the so-called Main Belt Comets (MBCs). We summarise the evidence for water throughout the Solar System, and describe the various methods for detecting it, including remote sensing from ultraviolet to radio wavelengths. We review progress in the first decade of study of MBCs, including observations, modelling of ice survival, and discussion on their origins. We then look at which methods will likely be most effective for further progress, including the key challenge of direct detection of (escaping) water in these bodies.

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Section: Space Telescopesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Main Belt Comets and ice in the Solar System

Snodgrass

Agarwal

Combi

et al. 2017

Astron Astrophys Rev

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“…2009, plus or minus a few weeks. Snodgrass et al (2010), taking advantage of the different viewing geometry from the Rosetta spacecraft, concur that the emission was very short, further constraining the emission date to 10 Feb. 2009, plus or minus 5 days.…”

Section: Tail Morphology and Duration Of The Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A69, page 9 of 15 In order to count the number of dust particles in each pixel, we estimated the size of the particles, assuming that all the dust in the tail was emitted during a single burst that took place on 10 Feb. 2009 (using the date of Snodgrass et al (2010), see Sect. 3.3.2), with a zero velocity from the large chunks of material that ended up located in the arcs.…”

Section: Quantity Of Dust In the Tailmentioning

confidence: 99%

P/2010 a2 Linear

Hainaut

Kleyna

Sarid

et al. 2012

A&A

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Comet P/2010 A2 LINEAR is an object on an asteroidal orbit within the inner main belt, therefore a good candidate for membership with the main belt comet family. It was observed with several telescopes (ESO New Technology Telescope, La Silla, Chile; Gemini North, Mauna Kea, Hawaii; University of Hawaii 2.2 m, Mauna Kea, Hawaii) from 14 Jan. until 19 Feb. 2010 in order to characterize and monitor it and its very unusual dust tail, which appears almost fully detached from the nucleus; the head of the tail includes two narrow arcs forming a cross. No evolution was observed during the span of the observations. Observations obtained during the Earth orbital plane crossing allowed an examination of the out-of-plane 3D structure of the tail. The immediate surroundings of the nucleus were found dust-free, which allowed an estimate of the nucleus radius of 80-90 m, assuming an albedo p = 0.11 and a phase correction with G = 0.15 (values typical for S-type asteroids). A model of the thermal evolution indicates that such a small nucleus could not maintain any ice content for more than a few million years on its current orbit, ruling out ice sublimation dust ejection mechanism. Rotational spin-up and electrostatic dust levitations were also rejected, leaving an impact with a smaller body as the favoured hypothesis. This is further supported by the analysis of the tail structure. Finston-Probstein dynamical dust modelling indicates the tail was produced by a single burst of dust emission. More advanced models (described in detail in a companion paper), independently indicate that this burst populated a hollow cone with a half-opening angle α ∼ 40 • and with an ejection velocity v max ∼ 0.2 m s −1 , where the small dust grains fill the observed tail, while the arcs are foreshortened sections of the burst cone. The dust grains in the tail are measured to have radii between a = 1-20 mm, with a differential size distribution proportional to a −3.44±0.08 . The dust contained in the tail is estimated to at least 8 × 10 8 kg, which would form a sphere of 40 m radius (with a density ρ = 3000 kg m −3 and an albedo p = 0.11 typical of S-type asteroids). Analysing these results in the framework of crater physics, we conclude that a gravity-controlled crater would have grown up to ∼100 m radius, i.e. comparable to the size of the body. The non-disruption of the body suggest this was an oblique impact.

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“…The activity of P/2012 F5 (Stevenson et al 2012;Moreno et al 2012), 596 (Hsieh et al 2012a;Ishiguro et al 2011a,b;Jewitt et al 2011;Moreno et al 2012), and P/2010 A2 (Jewitt et al 2010;Snodgrass et al 2010;Jewitt et al 2011;Hainaut et al 2012b;Kim et al 2012;Kleyna et al 2013) has been interpreted as the effect of impacts by small asteroids.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Continued activity in P/2013 P5 PANSTARRS

Hainaut

Boehnhardt

Snodgrass

et al. 2014

A&A

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The object P/2013 P5 PANSTARRS was discovered in August 2013, displaying a cometary tail, but its orbital elements indicated that it was a typical member of the inner asteroid main belt. We monitored the object from 2013 August 30 until 2013 October 05 using the CFHT 3.6 m telescope (Mauna Kea, HI), the NTT (ESO, La Silla), the CA 1.23 m telescope (Calar Alto), the Perkins 1.8m (Lowell) and the 0.6 m TRAPPIST telescope (La Silla). We measured its nuclear radius to be r < ∼ 0.25−0.29 km, and its colours g − r = 0.58 ± 0.05 and r − i = 0.23 ± 0.06, typical for an S-class asteroid, as expected for an object in the inner asteroid belt and in the vicinity of the Flora collisional family. We failed to detect any rotational light curve with an amplitude <0.05 mag and a double-peaked rotation period <20 h. The evolution of the tail during the observations was as expected from a dust tail. A detailed Finson-Probstein analysis of deep images acquired with the NTT in early September and with the CFHT in late September indicated that the object was active since at least late January 2013 until the time of the latest observations in 2013 September, with at least two peaks of activity around 2013 June 14 ± 10 d and 2013 July 22 ± 3 d. The changes of activity level and the activity peaks were extremely sharp and short, shorter than the temporal resolution of our observations (∼1 d). The dust distribution was similar during these two events, with dust grains covering at least the 1-1000 µm range. The total mass ejected in grains <1 mm was estimated to be 3.0 × 10 6 kg and 2.6 × 10 7 kg around the two activity peaks. Rotational disruption cannot be ruled out as the cause of the dust ejection. We also propose that the components of a contact binary might gently rub and produce the observed emission. Volatile sublimation might also explain what appears as cometary activity over a period of 8 months. However, while main belt comets best explained by ice sublimation are found in the outskirts of the main belt, where water ice is believed to be able to survive buried in moderately large objects for the age of the solar system deeply, the presence of volatiles in an object smaller than 300 m in radius would be very surprising in the inner asteroid belt.

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A collision in 2009 as the origin of the debris trail of asteroid P/2010 A2

Cited by 108 publications

References 20 publications

The Main Belt Comets and ice in the Solar System

The Main Belt Comets and ice in the Solar System

P/2010 a2 Linear

Continued activity in P/2013 P5 PANSTARRS

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