Related papers: Comet 240P/NEAT is Stirring
We report on our extensive photometry and imaging of Comet 46P/Wirtanen during its 2018/19 apparition and use these data to constrain modeling of Wirtanen's activity. Narrowband photometry was obtained on nine epochs from 2018 October…
Of the over 800 exoplanets detected to date, over half are on non-circular orbits, with eccentricities as high as 0.93. Such orbits lead to time-variable stellar heating, which has implications for the planet's atmospheric dynamical regime.…
Past and future dynamical evolution of all 64 long period comets having 1/aori< 1\times10-4 au-1 and qosc > 3.0 au and discovered after 1970 is studied. For all of them we obtained a new, homogeneous set of osculating orbits, including 15…
Interstellar Objects are comets and asteroids that formed around other stars but were ejected before they could accrete into exoplanets. They therefore represent a rare opportunity to compare the building blocks of planets in the Solar…
Eleven years after its perihelion, comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) is still active. Between October 20--22, 2007, we detected a diffuse coma of 180x10^3$km in diameter with a slight elongation toward N/S direction. The integrated brightness was…
The prime objective is to settle a contradiction between a high nongravitational acceleration affecting the orbital motion of comet C/1995 O1 and its enormous nucleus by modeling it as a compact cluster of boulder-sized fragments held…
Our Solar System originated in interstellar gas and dust; the latter is in the form of amorphous silicate particles and carbonaceous dust. The composition of cometary material shows that a significant fraction of the amorphous silicates was…
Jewitt et al. (2014) recently reported that main belt comet P/2013 R3 experienced a breakup, probably due to rotational disruption, with its components separating on mutually hyperbolic orbits. We propose a technique for constraining…
We analyze a sample of 139 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs), defined as those that reach perihelion distances $q < 1.3$ au, and that also fulfill the conditions of approaching or crossing Jupiter's orbit (aphelion distances $Q > 4.8$ au), having…
We describe the physical and orbital properties of C/2011 W3. After surviving perihelion, the comet underwent major changes (permanent loss of nuclear condensation, formation of spine tail). The process of disintegration culminated with an…
We obtained extensive narrowband photoelectric photometry of Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner with observations spanning 33 years. The original data from 1985 (Schleicher et al. 1987) were re-reduced and are presented along with data from three…
In this review presented at the Royal Society meeting, "Cometary Science After Rosetta", I present an overview of studies of small solar system objects that exhibit properties of both asteroids and comets (with a focus on so-called active…
A detailed study of comets active at large heliocentric distances (greater than 4 au) which enter the Solar System for the first time and are composed of matter in its elementary, unprocessed state, would help in our understanding of the…
Comets contain abundant amounts of organic and inorganic species. Many of the volatile molecules in comets have also been observed in the interstellar medium and some of them even with similar relative abundances, indicating formation under…
The composition of cometary ices provides key information on the thermal and chemical properties of the outer parts of the protoplanetary disk where they formed 4.6 Gy ago. This chapter reviews our knowledge of composition of cometary comae…
We observed Comet C/Siding Spring using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) during its close approach to Mars. The high spatial resolution images obtained through the F689M, F775W, and F845M filters reveal the characteristics of the dust coma.…
Comets are considered as the most primitive objects in the Solar System. Their composition provides information on the composition of the primitive solar nebula, 4.6 Gyr ago. The radio domain is a privileged tool to study the composition of…
A quantitative understanding of cometary outbursts requires robust constraints on the size distribution of ejected particles, which governs outburst dynamics and underpins estimates of released gas and dust. In the absence of direct…
Small bodies in our Solar System are considered remnants of their early formation. Studying their physical and dynamic properties can provide insights into their evolution, stability, and origin. ESA's Rosetta mission successfully landed…
A previous study suggests that the observed exponential character of the surface brightness profiles in the coma around the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS at 4 au can be explained as a consequence of the destruction of the icy scattering…