Related papers: Sublimation-Driven Activity in Main-Belt Comet 313…

We obtained 877 images of active asteroid 6478 Gault on 41 nights from January 10th to June 8th, 2019, using several telescopes. We created the phase, secular and rotational light curves of Gault, from which several physical parameters can…

It has been suggested that the comet-like activity of Main Belt Comets is due to the sublimation of sub-surface water-ice that is exposed when these objects are impacted by meter-sized bodies. We recently examined this scenario and showed…

Comet 81P (Wild 2) is characterized by the presence of a prominent-fan shaped dust emission originating from an active source at high latitude on the nucleus, whose axis is assumed to coincide with the comet's rotation axis. Therefore,…

Ejection of large boulder-like debris is a vigorous form of cometary activity that is unlikely induced by water ice out-gassing alone but rather associated with the sublimation of super-volatile ices. Though perceived on several comets,…

Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak (41P), a Jupiter family comet with three discoveries over about 100 years, is in a short-periodic orbit around the Sun with the perihelion close to the Earth distance. The 2017 apparition of 41P offered a…

We have obtained a Gemini South T-ReCS Qa-band (18.3 micron) image and a Spitzer MIPS SED-mode observation of HD181327, an F5/F6V member of the ~12 Myr old beta Pictoris moving group. We resolve the disk in thermal-emission for the first…

Main Belt Comets are a recently identified population of minor bodies with stable asteroid-like orbits but cometary appearances. Sublimation of water ice is the most likely mechanism for their recurrent activity (i.e. dust tails and dust…

We analyzed images of comet 49P/Arend-Rigaux on 33 nights between 2012 January and May and obtained R-band lightcurves of the nucleus. Through usual phasing of the data we found a double-peaked lightcurve having a synodic rotation period of…

Context. The Stardust flyby mission to Jupiter-family comet (JFC) 81P/Wild 2 (hereafter, 81P) captured its dense quasicircular depressions. Nevertheless, the formation mechanism remains a subject of ongoing debate. Aims. We aimed to study…

Sublimative outgassing of comets produces torques that alter the rotation state of their nuclei. Recently, parameterized sublimative torque models have been developed to study rotation state changes of individual comet nuclei and…

We report a new observation of the Jupiter-family comet 209P/LINEAR during its 2014 return. The comet is recognized as a dust source of a new meteor shower, the May Camelopardalids. 209P/LINEAR was apparently inactive at a heliocentric…

During 2006 Mar - 2007 Jan, we used the IRAC and MIPS instruments on the Spitzer Space Telescope to study the infrared emission from the ensemble of fragments, meteoroids, and dust tails in the more than 3 degree wide…

Jupiter Family comets (JFCs) are short period comets which have recently entered the inner solar system, having previously orbited in the Kuiper Belt since the formation of the planets. We used two nights on the 3.6m New Technology…

From two Active Asteroid (AA) known in 1979 we have advanced to 37 members at the beginning of 2019. More surprisingly, in the first three months of 2019 five new members were added to the list, one of them, 6478 Gault, with a curious, out…

Cometary activity in main-belt asteroids probes the ice content of these objects and provides clues to the history of volatiles in the inner solar system. We search the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) survey to derive upper limits on the…

Distant long-period comet C/2017 K2 has been outside the planetary region of the solar system for 3 Myr, negating the possibility that heat retained from the previous perihelion could be responsible for its activity. This inbound comet is…

We observed comet 96P/Machholz 1 on a total of 9 nights before and after perihelion during its 2017/2018 apparition. Both its unusually small perihelion distance and the observed fragmentation during multiple apparitions make 96P an object…

On 27 Apr 2015, when 67P/C-G was at 1.76 au from the Sun and moving towards perihelion, the OSIRIS and VIRTIS-M instruments on Rosetta observed the evolving dust and gas coma during a complete rotation of the comet. We aim to characterize…

We report the joint WASP/KELT discovery of WASP-167b/KELT-13b, a transiting hot Jupiter with a 2.02-d orbit around a $V$ = 10.5, F1V star with [Fe/H] = 0.1 $\pm$ 0.1. The 1.5 R$_{\rm Jup}$ planet was confirmed by Doppler tomography of the…

Comet 49P/ Arend-Rigaux, thought to be a low activity comet since the 1980's was found to be active in its recent apparitions. Recent analysis of the data obtained from Spitzer observation of the comet in 2006 compared with laboratory…