Related papers: Rotational Mass Shedding from Asteroid (6478) Gaul…
Active asteroid (6478) Gault sheds mass independent of location along its orbit. Rotational instability is considered to induce the observed activities. If this is the case, because Gaults breakup event has not been detected, surface…
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…
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…
Main-belt asteroid (6478) Gault was observed to show cometary features in early 2019. To investigate the cause, we conducted {\it BVR} observations at Xingming Observatory, China, from 2019 January to April. The two tails were formed around…
We report on accurate $BVR_{c}$ observations of (6478) Gault, a 5-6 km diameter inner main-belt asteroid in the Phocaea family, notable for its sporadic, comet-like ejection of dust. This curious behavior has been mainly interpreted as…
In December 2018, the main-belt asteroid (6478)~Gault was reported to display activity. Gault is an asteroid belonging to the Phocaea dynamical family and was not previously known to be active, nor was any other member of the Phocaea…
Main-belt asteroid (6478) Gault unexpectedly sprouted two tails in late 2018 and early 2019, identifying it as a new active asteroid. Here we present observations obtained by the 1.2-m Zwicky Transient Facility survey telescope that provide…
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 observed Episodically Active Asteroid (6478) Gault in 2020 with multiple telescopes in Asia and North America and have found that it is no longer active after its recent outbursts at the end of 2018 and start of 2019. The inactivity…
We present archival observations demonstrating that main belt asteroid (6478) Gault has an extensive history of comet-like activity. Outbursts have taken place during multiple epochs since 2013 and at distances extending as far as 2.68 au,…
On 2019 January 5 a streamer associated with the 4--10 km main-belt asteroid (6478)~Gault was detected by the ATLAS sky survey, a rare discovery of activity around a main-belt asteroid. Archival data from ATLAS and Pan-STARRS1 show the…
We present near-infrared spectroscopy of the sporadically active asteroid (6478) Gault collected on the 3 m NASA/Infrared Telescope Facility observatory in late 2019 March/early April. Long-exposure imaging with the 0.5 m NEEMO T05…
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…
We present the results of photometric observations of active asteroid (6478) Gault performed at heliocentric distances from 2.46 to 2.30 au and geocentric distances from 1.79 to 1.42 au between January 15 and March 28, 2019. Observations…
We present observations and models of the dust environment of activated asteroid P/2013 P5 (PANSTARRS). The object displayed a complex morphology during the observations, with the presence of multiple tails. We combined our own…
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,…
Main belt asteroid (6478) Gault has been dynamically linked with two overlapping asteroid families: Phocaea, dominated by S-type asteroids, and Tamara, dominated by low-albedo C-types. This object has recently become an interesting case for…
Asteroid (3200) Phaethon, a B-type asteroid, has been active during its perihelion passages. This asteroid is considered to be a source of the Geminid meteor stream. It is reported that this asteroid is spinning at a rotation period of…
While having a comet-like appearance, P/2012 F5 (Gibbs) has an orbit native to the Main Asteroid Belt, and physically is a km-sized asteroid which recently (mid 2011) experienced an impulsive mass ejection event. Here we report new…
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…