Bibcode
Pozuelos, F. J.; Cabrera-Lavers, A.; Licandro, J.; Moreno, F.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 806, Issue 1, article id. 102, 6 pp. (2015).
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6
2015
Journal
Citations
11
Refereed citations
9
Description
We present observations carried out using the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio
Canarias and an interpretative model of the dust environment of
activated asteroid 313 P/Gibbs. We discuss three different models
relating to different values of the dust parameters, i.e., dust loss
rate, maximum and minimum sizes of particles, power index of the size
distribution, and emission pattern. The best model corresponds to an
isotropic emission of particles which started on August 1. The sizes of
grains were in the range of 0.1‑2000 μm, with velocities for
100 μm particles between 0.4‑1.9 m s‑1, with a
dust production rate in the range of 0.2‑0.8 kg
s‑1. The dust tails’ brightnesses and
morphologies are best interpreted in terms of a model of sustained and
low dust emission driven by water-ice sublimation, spanning since 2014
August 1, and triggered by a short impulsive event. This event produced
an emission of small particles of about 0.1 μm with velocities of
∼4 m s‑1. From our model we deduce that the
activity of this main-belt comet continued for at least four months
since activation.
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Minor Bodies of the Solar System
This project studies the physical and compositional properties of the so-called minor bodies of the Solar System, that includes asteroids, icy objects, and comets. Of special interest are the trans-neptunian objects (TNOs), including those considered the most distant objects detected so far (Extreme-TNOs or ETNOs); the comets and the comet-asteroid
Julia de
León Cruz