Related papers: Rotational Mass Shedding from Asteroid (6478) Gaul…
The rotational distribution of asteroids as a function of their size is used {as a diagnostic of} their physical properties and evolution. Recent photometric surveys from the Gaia mission, allowing observation of asteroids with long spin…
Martian planet-encircling dust storms or global dust storms (GDS), resulting from the combined influence of local and regional storms, are uncommon aperiodic phenomena: with an average frequency of approximately one every 3-4 MY, they…
We present the results of observations of asteroid (248370) QN$_{173}$ obtained during July 2021 - January 2022 with three telescopes. Our analysis revealed the presence of the dust tail for about half of a year. The direct images of the…
Many asteroids show indications they have undergone impacts with meteoroid particles having radii between 0.01 m and 1 m. During such impacts, small dust grains will be ejected at the impact site. The possibility of these dust grains (with…
Quasi-Hilda asteroid P/2010 H2 (Vales) underwent a spectacular photometric outburst by 7.5 magnitudes (factor of 1000) in 2010. Here, we present our optical observations of this event in the four month period from April 20 to August 10. The…
Hubble Space Telescope observations of main-belt comet P/2013 P5 reveal an extraordinary system of six dust tails that distinguish this object from any other. Observations two weeks apart show dramatic morphological change in the tails…
We present Hubble Space Telescope and Keck 10 meter telescope observations of active asteroid 288P/300163 (2006 VW139) taken to examine ejected dust. The nucleus is a C-type object with absolute magnitude $H_V$ = 17.0$\pm$0.1 and estimated…
Post-main-sequence planetary science has been galvanised by the striking variability, depth and shape of the photometric transit curves due to objects orbiting white dwarf WD 1145+017, a star which also hosts a dusty debris disc and…
We have obtained extensive photometric observations of the polluted white dwarf WD 1145+017 which has been reported to be transited by at least one, and perhaps several, large asteroids (or, planetesimals) with dust emission. We have…
Although discs of dust and gas have been observed orbiting white dwarfs, the origin of this circumstellar matter is uncertain. We hypothesize that the in-situ breakup of small bodies such as asteroids spun to fission during the giant branch…
We report the discovery of a comet-like tail on asteroid (3200) Phaethon when imaged at optical wavelengths near perihelion. In both 2009 and 2012, the tail appears >=350" (2.5x10^8 m) in length and extends approximately in the projected…
Main-belt asteroid 2010 LH$_{15}$ has been classified as an active asteroid, based on the recent discovery of dust activity from the archival images observed in 2010 and 2019. In this study, we perform measurements and dynamical modeling of…
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…
We present a fireball detected in the night sky over Kyoto, Japan on UT 2017 April 28 at ${\rm 15^{h}\,58^{m}\,19^{s}}$ by the SonotaCo Network. The absolute visual magnitude is $M_{\rm v}$=$-$4.10$\pm$0.42mag. Luminous light curves obtain…
We report the discovery of mid-infrared excess emission in the young object RZ Psc. The excess constitutes ~8% of its Lbol, and is well fit by a single 500K black-body implying a dust free region within 0.7AU for optically thick dust. The…
We use the known surface boulder-size distribution of the C-type rubble pile asteroid Ryugu (NEA 162173) to determine its macroporosity, assuming it is a homogeneous granular aggregate. We show that the volume-frequency distribution of its…
The near-Earth asteroid (196256) 2003 EH1 has been suggested to have a dynamical association with the Quadrantid meteoroid stream. We present photometric observations taken to investigate the physical character of this body and to explore…
From Jan. 6, 2019 to Feb. 18, 2019, OSIRIS-REx observed asteroid (101955) Bennu ejecting 11 plumes of dust, of which part is escaping and another part is re-captured by the asteroid. The relative magnitudes of the typical forces acting on…
We present space-based thermal infrared observations of the presumably Geminid-associated asteroids: (3200)Phaethon, 2005 UD and 1999 YC using WISE/NEOWISE. The images were taken at the four wavelength bands…
We report a new active asteroid in the main belt of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter. Object (62412) 2000 SY178 exhibited a tail in images collected during our survey for objects beyond the Kuiper Belt using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam)…