A Short-duration Event as the Cause of Dust Ejection from Main-Belt Comet P/2012 F5 (Gibbs).

Panels (a) and (b) correspond to the observation and best-fitted image for the observation on 2012 May 18. Panel (c) shows observed and modeled scans along the trail of those images. Panels (d), (e), and (f) give the same as (a), (b), and (c), respectivel
Panels (a) and (b) correspond to the observation and best-fitted image for the observation on 2012 May 18. Panel (c) shows observed and modeled scans along the trail of those images. Panels (d), (e), and (f) give the same as (a), (b), and (c), respectivel
Advertised on
References
ApJ 761, 12M, 2012

We present observations and an interpretative model of the dust environment of the Main-Belt Comet P/2010 F5 (Gibbs). The narrow dust trails observed can be interpreted unequivocally as an impulsive event that took place around 2011 July 1 with an uncertainty of ±10 days, and a duration of less than a day, possibly of the order of a few hours. The best Monte Carlo dust model fits to the observed trail brightness imply ejection velocities in the range 8-10 cm s–1 for particle sizes between 30 cm and 130 μm. This weak dependence of velocity on size contrasts with that expected from ice sublimation and agrees with that found recently for (596) Scheila, a likely impacted asteroid. The particles seen in the trail are found to follow a power-law size distribution of index ≈  –3.7. Assuming that the slowest particles were ejected at the escape velocity of the nucleus, its size is constrained to about 200-300 m in diameter. The total ejected dust mass is > ~ 5 × 108 kg, which represents approximately 4%-20% of the nucleus mass.

News type
Research news

It may interest you

  • materia-socura
    Research news
    Researchers from the IAC discover that dark matter experiences forces beyond gravity
    The existence of dark matter is probably one of the fundamental mysteries of modern science and unraveling its nature has become one of the primary goals of modern Physics. Despite representing 85% of all matter in the Universe, we do not know what it is. In its simplest description, it is made up of particles that interact with each other and with ordinary matter only through gravity. However, this description does not correspond to any physical model. Finding out what dark matter is requires finding evidence of some kind of interaction of dark matter that goes beyond gravity. In our work
    Advertised on
  • Asteroid reflectance spectra from Gaia DR3
    Research news
    Asteroid reflectance spectra from Gaia DR3: Near-UV in primitive asteroids
    Asteroids are the remnants of the planetary formation in the Solar System and so, their study helps us to understand the conditions during the early stages of the formation of our planetary system. Among asteroids, those classified as primitives present similar spectra to that of carbonaceous chondrites, i.e., they are rich in carbon and organic compounds and silicates altered by the presence of liquid water (phyllosilicates). Primitive asteroids are well characterized in various wavelength regions, showing their most diagnostic feature at 3μm. However, there is a lack of information in the
    Advertised on
  • galaxies in the CALIFA
    Research news
    Baryonic properties of nearby galaxies across the stellar-to-total dynamical mass relation
    Despite the fundamental role that dark matter halos play in our theoretical understanding of galaxy formation and evolution, the interplay between galaxies and their host dark matter halos remains highly debated from an observational perspective. This lack of conclusive observational evidence ultimately arises from the inherent difficulty of reliably measuring dark matter (halo) properties. Based on detailed dynamical modeling of nearby galaxies, in this work we proposed a novel observational approach to quantify the potential effect that dark matter halos may have in modulating galaxy
    Advertised on