Observations of the main-belt comets 238P & 288P Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Hsieh H.H.
  2. Ishiguro M.
  3. Kim Y.
  4. Knight M.M.
  5. Lin Z.-Y.
  6. Micheli M.,Moskovitz N.A.
  7. Sheppard S.S.
  8. Thirouin A.
  9. Trujillo C.A.
  10. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

We report observations of the reactivations of the main-belt comets (MBCs) 238P/Read and 288P/(300163) 2006 VW_139_ that also track the evolution of each object's activity over several months in 2016 and 2017. We additionally identify and analyze archival SDSS data showing 288P to have been active in 2000, meaning that both 238P and 288P have now each been confirmed to be active near perihelion on three separate occasions. From data obtained of 288P from 2012-2015 when it appeared inactive, we find best-fit R-band H, G phase function parameters of H_R_=16.80+/-0.12 mag and G_R_=0.18+/-0.11, corresponding to effective component radii of r_c_=0.80+/-0.04 km, assuming a binary system with equally sized components. Fitting linear functions to ejected dust masses inferred for 238P and 288P soon after their observed reactivations in 2016, we find an initial average net dust production rate of M_d_=0.7+/-0.3 kg/s and a best-fit start date of 2016 March 11 (when the object was at a true anomaly of {nu}=-63{deg}) for 238P, and an initial average net dust production rate of M_d_=5.6+/-0.7 kg/s and a best-fit start date of 2016 August 5 (when the object was at {nu}=-27{deg}) for 288P. Applying similar analyses to archival data, we find similar start points for previous active episodes for both objects, suggesting that minimal mantle growth or ice recession occurred between the active episodes in question. Some changes in dust production rates between active episodes are detected, however. More detailed dust modeling is suggested to further clarify the process of activity evolution in MBCs.

Keywords
  1. Solar system
  2. Comets
  3. Photometry
  4. Optical astronomy
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2018AJ....156..223H
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/AJ/156/223
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/156/223
Document Object Identifer DOI
doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.51560223

Access

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http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/AJ/156/223
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/AJ/156/223
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/AJ/156/223
IVOA Table Access TAP
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History

2019-04-25T13:29:06Z
Resource record created
2019-04-25T13:29:06Z
Created
2019-05-07T07:19:26Z
Updated

Contact

Name
CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
E-Mail
cds-question@unistra.fr