A recent disruption of the main-belt asteroid P/2010 A2

Jewitt, David; Weaver, Harold A.; Agarwal, Jessica; Mutchler, Max; Drahus, M.

doi:10.1038/nature09456

Cited by 141 publications

(210 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…3.3.2. This strengthens the conclusion of Jewitt et al (2010) that there was no cometary activity based on the purely geometric variation of nucleus brightness with heliocentric distances, withing 0.6 mag, from 25 Jan. until 29 May 2010.…”

Section: Measurementssupporting

confidence: 72%

“…Following the nomenclature introduced by Jewitt et al (2010) in their Fig. 1 describing their Hubble observations, the main features of the comet are a principal nucleus connected via a very faint and narrow light bridge to an arc-shaped dust feature (see A second arc-shaped feature crosses the first one almost perpendicularly.…”

Section: Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreno et al (2010) presented observations obtained with the GTC, WHT and NOT on La Palma, which they modeled with an extended period of water-driven cometary activity. Jewitt et al (2010) acquired a series of HST images; from the orientation and geometry of the tail, they favor the disruption of an asteroid (either by collision or spin up) in Feb.-Mar. 2009.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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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Section: Measurementssupporting

confidence: 72%

Section: Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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P/2010 a2 Linear

Hainaut

Kleyna

Sarid

et al. 2012

A&A

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“…Rotational light curves of asteroids suggest that objects larger than 150 m in diameter are inside the limit for losing mass at the equator (Pravec et al 2002), which suggests that this process might be in effect. Because P/2012 A2 is a very small object (∼100 m radius postemission, Jewitt et al 2010;Hainaut et al 2012b, the matter ejected amounts to a very small change of the radius), this is quite plausible. For completeness, the YORP effect is also believed to be able to cause a catastrophic break-up of the object, a scenario incompatible with these observations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…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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Astronomische Nachrichten—Broadband photometry of asteroid 6478 Gault: Activity and morphology

et al. 2020

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We present the results of short observational program of asteroid 6478 Gault with using of V and R Johnson filters realized at the Kyiv Comet Station during January -April 2019. Color indices and distribution of brightness in the comet-like tail were calculated. We made a comparative analysis of circumstances of the asteroid 6478 Gault activity with others morphologically similar active Main Belt asteroids.

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A recent disruption of the main-belt asteroid P/2010 A2

Cited by 141 publications

References 17 publications

P/2010 a2 Linear

P/2010 a2 Linear

Continued activity in P/2013 P5 PANSTARRS

Astronomische Nachrichten—Broadband photometry of asteroid 6478 Gault: Activity and morphology

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