Related papers: Disintegrating Asteroid P/2013 R3
We report dense lightcurve photometry, $BVR_{c}$ colors and phase - mag curve of (6478) Gault, an active asteroid with sporadic comet-like ejection of dust. We collected optical observations along the 2020 Jul-Nov months during which the…
We present results from a wide-field imaging campaign at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope to study the spectacular outburst of comet 17P/Holmes in late 2007. Using image-processing techniques we probe inside the spherical dust coma and…
We study the far-infrared emission properties of the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253 based on IRAS maps and an ISOPHOT map at 180 microns. Based on the analysis of the light profiles, we have been able to identify three main structural…
Hubble Space Telescope observations of interstellar comet 2I/Borisov near perihelion show the ejection of large (>~100 um) particles at <~9 m/s speeds, with estimated mass-loss rates of ~35 kg/s. The total mass loss from comet Borisov…
Asteroid (6478) Gault was discovered to exhibit a comet-like tail in observations from December 2018, becoming a new member of the so-called active asteroid population in the main asteroid belt. The aims are to investigate the grain…
Gaia Data Release 2 includes observational data for 14,099 pre-selected asteroids. From the sparsely sampled G band photometry, we derive lower-limit lightcurve amplitudes for 11,665 main belt asteroids in order to provide constraints on…
Recent dynamical studies have identified pairs of asteroids that reside in nearly identical heliocentric orbits. Possible formation scenarios for these systems include dissociation of binary asteroids, collisional disruption of a single…
As part of our effort to search for circumstellar disks around high-mass stellar objects, we observed the well-known core G31.41+0.31 with ALMA at 1.4 mm with an angular resolution of~0.22" (~1700 au). The dust continuum emission has been…
We aim to study the dust ejected by main-belt comet (MBC) (300163) 2006 VW139 to obtain information on the ejection mechanism and the spectral properties of the object, to see if they are compatible with those of "normal" comets. Images in…
We have evaluated the rate at which the asteroid belt is losing material, and how it splits between macroscopic bodies and meteoritic dust. The mass loss process is due to the injection of asteroid fragments into unstable dynamical regions,…
In this paper we apply different methods to examine the possibility that a small group of 24 asteroids dynamically linked to main-belt comet P/2006 VW139, recently discovered by the Pan-STARRS1 survey telescope, shares a common physical…
We present imaging and spectroscopic observations of 6478 Gault, a 6 km diameter inner main-belt asteroid currently exhibiting strong, comet-like characteristics. Three distinct tails indicate that ultra-slow dust (ejection speed…
Comet C/2013 A1 (siding Spring) will experience a high velocity encounter with Mars on October 19, 2014 at a distance of 135,000 km +- 5000 km from the planet center. We present a comprehensive analysis of the trajectory of both the comet…
We present initial time-resolved observations of the split comet 332P/Ikeya-Murakami taken using the Hubble Space Telescope. Our images reveal a dust-bathed cluster of fragments receding from their parent nucleus at projected speeds in the…
An explosion on comet 17P/Holmes occurred on 2007 Oct 23, projecting particulate debris of a wide range of sizes into the interplanetary medium. We observed the comet using the Spitzer spectrograph on 2007 Nov 10 and 2008 Feb 27, and the…
The interstellar object 3I/ATLAS shows a weak cometary activity. Its brightness suggests a maximum radius of ~10km (A/0.05)^{-1/2} for an asteroid with an albedo A. I show that interstellar objects with that radius would amount to an…
We present a physical characterization of main-belt comet 176P/LINEAR. Observations show the object exhibiting a fan-shaped tail in late 2005, but then becoming inactive in early 2006. Using data from 2007 when the object was observed to be…
Hubble Space Telescope observations of active asteroid 324P/La Sagra near perihelion show continued mass loss consistent with the sublimation of near-surface ice. Isophotes of the coma measured from a vantage point below the orbital plane…
Water ice is a fundamental building material of comets and other bodies in the outer solar system. Yet, the properties of cometary water ice are challenging to study, due to its volatility and the typical distances at which comets are…
The mysterious solar system object 133P/(7968) Elst-Pizarro is dynamically asteroidal, yet displays recurrent comet-like dust emission. Two scenarios were hypothesized to explain this unusual behavior: (1) 133P is a classical comet from the…