Initial Characterization of Active Transitioning Centaur, P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS), using Hubble, Spitzer, ZTF, Keck, APO and GROWTH Visible & Infrared Imaging and Spectroscopy

Autor: Bolin, Bryce T., Fernandez, Yanga R., Lisse, Carey M., Holt, Timothy R., Lin, Zhong-Yi, Purdum, Josiah N., Deshmukh, Kunal P., Bauer, James M., Bellm, Eric C., Bodewits, Dennis, Burdge, Kevin B., Carey, Sean J., Copperwheat, Chris M., Helou, George, Ho, Anna Y. Q., Horner, Jonathan, van Roestel, Jan, Bhalerao, Varun, Chang, Chan-Kao, Chen, Christine, Hsu, Chen-Yen, Ip, Wing-Huen, Kasliwal, Mansi M., Masci, Frank J., Ngeow, Chow-Choong, Quimby, Robert, Burruss, Rick, Coughlin, Michael, Dekany, Richard, Delacroix, Alexandre, Drake, Andrew, Duev, Dmitry A., Graham, Matthew, Hale, David, Kupfer, Thomas, Laher, Russ R., Mahabal, Ashish, Mróz, Przemyslaw J., Neill, James D., Riddle, Reed, Rodriguez, Hector, Smith, Roger M., Soumagnac, Maayane T., Walters, Richard, Yan, Lin, Zolkower, Jeffry
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Druh dokumentu: Working Paper
DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/abd94b
Popis: We present visible and mid-infrared imagery and photometry of temporary Jovian co-orbital comet P/2019 LD$_2$ taken with HST/WFC3, Spitzer/IRAC, the GROWTH telescope network, visible spectroscopy from Keck/LRIS and archival ZTF observations taken between 2019 April and 2020 August. Our observations indicate that the nucleus of LD$_2$ has a radius between 0.2-1.8 km assuming a 0.08 albedo and a coma dominated by $\sim$100$\mu$ m-scale dust ejected at $\sim$1 m/s speeds with a $\sim$1'' jet pointing in the SW direction. LD$_2$ experienced a total dust mass loss of $\sim$10$^8$ kg at a loss rate of $\sim$6 kg/s with Af$\rho$/cross-section varying between $\sim$85 cm/125 km$^2$ and $\sim$200 cm/310 km$^2$ from 2019 April 9 to 2019 Nov 8. If the increase in Af$\rho$/cross-section remained constant, it implies LD$_2$'s activity began $\sim$2018 November when within 4.8 au of the Sun, implying the onset of H$_2$O sublimation. We measure CO/CO$_2$ gas production of $\lesssim$10$^{27}$ mol/s /$\lesssim$10$^{26}$ mol/s from our 4.5 $\mu$m Spitzer observations, $g$-$r$ = 0.59$\pm$0.03, $r$-$i$ = 0.18$\pm$0.05, $i$-$z$ = 0.01$\pm$0.07 from GROWTH observations, H$_2$O gas production of $\lesssim$80 kg/s scaling from our estimated $C_2$ production of $Q_{C_2}\lesssim$7.5$\times10^{24}$ mol/s from Keck/LRIS spectroscopy. We determine that the long-term orbit of LD$_2$ is similar to Jupiter family comets having close encounters with Jupiter within $\sim$0.5 Hill radius in the last $\sim$3 y, within 0.8 Hill radius in $\sim$9 y. Additionally, 78.8$\%$ of our orbital clones are ejected from the Solar System within $1 \times 10^{6}$ years having a dynamical half-life of 3.4 $\times 10^5$ years.
Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures, 2 Tables, accepted for publication in AJ
Databáze: arXiv