Related papers: Disintegrating In-Bound Long-Period Comet C/2019 J…

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…

On 4 July 2005 at 05:52 UT, the impactor of NASA's Deep Impact (DI) mission crashed into comet 9P/Tempel 1 with a velocity of about 10 km/s. The material ejected by the impact expanded into the normal coma, produced by ordinary cometary…

We present visible and near-infrared photometric and spectroscopic observations of interstellar object 2I/Borisov taken from 2019 September 10 to 2019 November 29 using the GROWTH, the APO ARC 3.5 m and the NASA/IRTF 3.0 m combined with…

We report results of intensive time-resolved imaging photometry and synoptic deep imaging of the comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) performed in February 2013. The data were obtained at the Wise Observatory in Israel (WO), at the Himalayan Chandra…

Most main-belt asteroids are primitive rock and metal bodies in orbit about the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. Disruption, through high velocity collisions or rotational spin-up, is believed to be the primary mechanism for the production and…

We report on the catastrophic disintegration of P/2016 G1 (PANSTARRS), an active asteroid, in April 2016. Deep images over three months show that object is constituted by a central concentration of fragments surrounded by an elongated coma,…

Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 has been observed to fragment on several occasions, yet the cause of its fragmentation remains poorly understood. We use previously unpublished archival Hubble Space Telescope data taken in 2006 to study the…

The coma of comet C/2016 R2 (PanSTARRS) is one of the most chemically peculiar ever observed, in particular due to its extremely high CO/H2O and N2+/H2O ratios}, and unusual trace volatile abundances. However, the complex shape of its CO…

Motivated by recent data on comets in the low corona, we discuss destruction of sun impacting comets in the dense lower solar atmosphere. Perihelion distances q less than the solar radius and incident masses Mo much greater than 1E12 g are…

Rotational spin-up due to outgassing of comet nuclei has been identified as a possible mechanism for considerable mass-loss and splitting. We report a search for spin changes for three large Jupiter-family comets (JFCs): 14P/Wolf,…

Comet C/2020 V2 (ZTF) is categorized as a dynamically new long-period comet, making its first approach to the inner Solar system. We have observed this comet for around 32 months (from January 2022 to July 2024) at heliocentric distances…

We combine ground- and space-based observations of long-period comet C/2021 O3 (Panstarrs) (perihelion distance 0.287 au) in order to investigate its reported near-perihelion destruction. Pre-perihelion photometric observations show a…

The Solar Wind ANisotropies (SWAN) all-sky hydrogen Lyman-alpha camera on the SOlar and Heliospheric Observer (SOHO) satellite observed the hydrogen coma of comet C/2017 S3 (PanSTARRS) for the last month of its activity from 2018 July 4 to…

Gateway Centaur and Jupiter co-orbital P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS) (Sarid et al. 2019) provides the first opportunity to observe the migration of a Solar System small body from a Centaur orbit to a Jupiter Family Comet (JFC) four decades from now…

We present a study of two newly discovered heliocentric hyperbolic objects -- 2017 U7 and 2018 C2. Both are possibly thermally evolved comets. Observations of the latter in 2018 March from Xingming Observatory revealed that it has a color…

Cometary outgassing can produce torques that change the spin state of the nucleus, influencing the evolution and lifetimes of comets (1,2). If these torques spin up the rotation to the point that centripetal forces exceed the material…

Our current understanding of split, Jupiter-family comets is reviewed. The focus is on what recent studies of comets have told us about the nature of the splitting phenomenon. The goal is to not repeat the information given in recent…

Images and low-resolution spectra of the near-Earth Jupiter family comet (JFC) 249P/LINEAR in the visible range obtained with the instrument OSIRIS in the 10.4m Gran Telescopio Canarias on January 3, 4, 6 and February 6, 2016 are presented,…

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…

On 4 July 2005 at 5:52 UT the Deep Impact mission successfully completed its goal to hit the nucleus of 9P/Tempel 1 with an impactor, forming a crater on the nucleus and ejecting material into the coma of the comet. NASA's Submillimeter…