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Related papers: Nucleus and Mass Loss from Active Asteroid 313P/Gi…

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We present high angular resolution observations of the third known interstellar interloper, 3I/ATLAS, from the Hubble Space Telescope. The object is clearly active at 3.8 au pre-perihelion, showing dust emitted from the hot Sun-facing side…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-08-21 David Jewitt , Man-To Hui , Max Mutchler , Yoonyoung Kim , Jessica Agarwal

The $\sim$4 km diameter main belt asteroid 6478 Gault has ejected dust intermittently since at least 2013. The character of the emission, including its episodic nature and the low speed of the ejected particles ($V \sim $ 0.15 m s$^{-1}$),…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2021-04-14 J. X. Luu , D. C. Jewitt , M. Mutchler , J. Agarwal , Y. Kim , J. Li , H. Weaver

Some asteroids eject dust, unexpectedly producing transient, comet-like comae and tails. First ascribed to the sublimation of near-surface water ice, mass losing asteroids (also called "main-belt comets") can in fact be driven by a…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-03 Dave Jewitt

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…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2019-05-15 David Jewitt , Yoonyoung Kim , Jane Luu , Jayadev Rajagopal , Ralf Kotulla , Susan Ridgway , Wilson Liu

We report observations of nine MBCs or candidate MBCs, most of which were obtained when the targets were apparently inactive. We find effective nucleus radii (assuming albedos of p_V=0.05+/-0.02) of r_n=(0.24+/-0.05) km for 238P/Read,…

We present deep imaging observations, orbital dynamics, and dust tail model analyses of the double-component asteroid P/2016 J1 (J1-A and J1-B). The observations were acquired at the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) and the…

We report on the characterisation of the dust activity and dynamical evolution of two faint active asteroids, P/2019 A4, and P/2021 A5, observed with the 10.4m GTC using both imaging and spectroscopy. Asteroid P/2019 A4 activity is found to…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2021-07-07 Fernando Moreno , Javier Licandro , Antonio Cabrera-Lavers , David Morate , Daniel Guirado

We present an analysis of new and published data on P/2013 R3, the first asteroid detected while disintegrating. Thirteen discrete components are measured in the interval between UT 2013 October 01 and 2014 February 13. We determine a mean,…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2017-05-03 Dave Jewitt , Jessica Agarwal , Jing Li , Harold Weaver , Max Mutchler , Stephen Larson

We present a dynamical analysis of the fragmented active asteroid 331P/Gibbs. Using archival images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope from 2015 to 2018, we measured the astrometry of the primary and the three brightest (presumably the…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2022-11-09 Man-To Hui , David Jewitt

Splitting of the nuclei of comets into multiple components has been frequently observed but, to date, no main-belt asteroid has been observed to break-up. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, we find that main-belt asteroid P/2013 R3 consists…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-19 David Jewitt , Jessica Agarwal , Jing Li , Harold Weaver , Max Mutchler , Stephen Larson

We observed near-Sun comet 323P/SOHO for the first time using ground and space telescopes. In late December 2020, the object was recovered at Subaru showing no cometary features on its way to perihelion. However, in our postperihelion…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2022-06-22 Man-To Hui , David J. Tholen , Rainer Kracht , Chan-Kao Chang , Paul A. Wiegert , Quan-Zhi Ye , Max Mutchler

P/2013 P5 PANSTARRS was discovered in Aug. 2013, displaying a cometary tail, but with orbital elements typical for a member of the inner asteroid Main Belt. We monitored the object from 2013 Aug. 30 until Oct. 05 using the CFHT, NTT, CA…

We present observations of main-belt comet 358P/PANSTARRS (P/2012 T1) obtained using the Gemini South telescope from 2017 July to 2017 December, as the object approached perihelion for the first time since its discovery. We find best-fit…

We present observations and an interpretative model of the dust environment of Main-Belt Comet P/2010 F5 (Gibbs). The narrow dust trails observed can be interpreted unequivocally as an impulsive event that took place around 2011 July 1st…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-12 Fernando Moreno , Javier Licandro , Antonio Cabrera-Lavers

133P/Elst-Pizarro is the firstly recognized main-belt comet, but we still know little about its nucleus. Firstly we use mid-infrared data of Spitzer-MIPS, Spitzer-IRS and WISE to estimate its effective diameter $D_{\rm…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-01-29 Liang Liang Yu , Chih-Hao Hsia , Wing-Huen Ip

After the early observations of the disrupted asteroid P/2016 G1 with the 10.4m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), and the modeling of the dust ejecta, we have performed a follow-up observational campaign of this object using the Hubble Space…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2017-12-06 F. Moreno , J. Licandro , M. Mutchler , A. Cabrera-Lavers , N. Pinilla-Alonso , F. J. Pozuelos

We examine the motions of large fragments at the head of the dust tail of active asteroid P/2010 A2. In previous work we showed that these fragments were ejected from the primary nucleus in early 2009, either following a hypervelocity…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-15 Jessica Agarwal , David Jewitt , Harold Weaver

Observations of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS have revealed a strong production of gas and dust near perihelion, together with rapid brightening. The outgassing from the nucleus has led to a detectable non-gravitational acceleration. In…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2026-03-18 Valentin Thoss , Abraham Loeb , Andreas Burkert

P/2011 S1 (Gibbs) is an outer solar system comet or active Centaur with a similar orbit to that of the famous 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1. P/2011 S1 (Gibbs) has been observed by the Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) sky survey from 2010 to 2012. The…