Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T17:14:13.707Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Main-belt comets: sublimation-driven activity in the asteroid belt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2016

Henry H. Hsieh*
Affiliation:
Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy & Astrophysics, 11F, Astronomy-Mathematics Building, National Taiwan UniversityNo. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan email: [email protected] Planetary Science Institute1700 East Fort Lowell Road, Suite 106Tucson, Arizona 85719, United States of America email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Our knowledge of main-belt comets (MBCs), which exhibit comet-like activity likely due to the sublimation of volatile ices, yet orbit in the main asteroid belt, has increased greatly since the discovery of the first known MBC, 133P/Elst-Pizarro, in 1996, and their recognition as a new class of solar system objects after the discovery of two more MBCs in 2005. I review work that has been done over the last 10 years to improve our understanding of these enigmatic objects, including the development of systematic discovery methods and diagnostics for distinguishing MBCs from disrupted asteroids (which exhibit comet-like activity due to physical disruptions such as impacts or rotational destabilization). I also discuss efforts to understand the dynamical and thermal properties of these objects.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2016 

References

Agarwal, J., Jewitt, D., & Weaver, H. 2013, Astrophys. J., 769, 46Google Scholar
Bertini, I. 2011, Planet. Space Sci., 59, 365377Google Scholar
Bockelée-Morvan, D., Crovisier, J., Mumma, M. J., & Weaver, H. A. 2004, Comets II (Univ. of Arizona Press: Tucson, AZ), 391423Google Scholar
Bodewits, D., Kelley, M. S., Li, J.-Y., et al. 2011, Astrophys. J. Letters, 733, L3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boehnhardt, H., Sekanina, Z., Fiedler, A., Rauer, H., Schulz, R., & Tozzi, G. 1998, Highlights Astron., 11A, 233Google Scholar
Bottke, W. F. Jr., Durda, D. D., Nesvorný, D., Jedicke, R., Morbidelli, A., Vokrouhlický, D., & Levison, H. F. 2005, Icarus, 179, 6394Google Scholar
Campins, H., Hargrove, K., Pinilla-Alonso, N., Howell, E. S., Kelley, M. S., Licandro, J., Mothé-Diniz, T., Fernández, Y. R., & Ziffer, J. 2010, Nature, 464, 13201321Google Scholar
Cheng, A. F. 2004, Icarus, 169, 357372Google Scholar
Cikota, S., Ortiz, J. L., Cikota, A., Morales, N., & Tancredi, G. 2014, Astron. Astrophys., 562, A94Google Scholar
Elst, E. W., Pizarro, O., Pollas, C., Ticha, J., Tichy, M., Moravec, Z., Offutt, W., & Marsden, B. G. 1996, IAU Circ. 6456, 1Google Scholar
Fernández, J. A., Gallardo, T., & Brunini, A. 2002, Icarus, 159, 358368Google Scholar
Garradd, G. J., Sostero, G., Camilleri, P., Guido, E., Jacques, C., & Pimentel, E. 2008, IAU Circ. 8969, 1Google Scholar
Gilbert, A. M. & Wiegert, P. A. 2009, Icarus, 201, 714718Google Scholar
Gilbert, A. M. & Wiegert, P. A. 2010, Icarus, 210, 998999Google Scholar
Haghighipour, N. 2009, Meteoritics & Planet. Sci., 44, 18631869Google Scholar
Hainaut, O. R., Boehnhardt, H., Snodgrass, C., et al. 2014, Astron. Astrophys., 563, A75Google Scholar
Hargrove, K. D., Emery, J. P., Campins, H., & Kelley, M. S. P. 2015, Icarus, 254, 150156Google Scholar
Hsieh, H. H. 2009, Astron. Astrophys., 505, 12971310Google Scholar
Hsieh, H. H. 2014, Proc. IAU Symp. 293, 212218Google Scholar
Hsieh, H. H. & Jewitt, D. 2006, Science, 312, 561563Google Scholar
Hsieh, H. H. & Sheppard, S. S. 2015, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 454, L81L85Google Scholar
Hsieh, H. H., Jewitt, D., & Fernández, Y. R. 2004, Astron. J., 127, 29973017Google Scholar
Hsieh, H. H., Jewitt, D., & Pittichová, J. 2006, IAU Circ., 8704, 3Google Scholar
Hsieh, H. H., Jewitt, D., & Ishiguro, M. 2009, Astron. J., 137, 157168Google Scholar
Hsieh, H. H., Jewitt, D., Lacerda, P., Lowry, S. C., & Snodgrass, C. 2010, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 403, 363377Google Scholar
Hsieh, H. H., Ishiguro, M., Lacerda, P., & Jewitt, D. 2011a, Astron. J., 142, 29Google Scholar
Hsieh, H. H., Meech, K. J., & Pittichová, J. 2011b, Astrophys. J. Letters, 736, L18Google Scholar
Hsieh, H. H., Yang, B., & Haghighipour, N. 2012a, Astrophys. J., 744, 9Google Scholar
Hsieh, H. H., Yang, B., Haghighipour, N., et al. 2012b, Astrophys. J. Letters, 748, L15Google Scholar
Hsieh, H. H., Yang, B., Haghighipour, N., et al. 2012c, Astron. J., 143, 104Google Scholar
Hsieh, H. H., Kaluna, H. M., Novaković, B., et al. 2013, Astrophys. J. Letters, 771, L1Google Scholar
Hsieh, H. H., Denneau, L., Wainscoat, R. J., et al. 2015a, Icarus, 248, 289312Google Scholar
Hsieh, H. H., Hainaut, O., Novaković, B., et al. 2015b, Astrophys. J. Letters, 800, L16Google Scholar
Ishiguro, M., Hanayama, H., Hasegawa, S., et al. 2011, Astrophys. J. Letters, 741, L24CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ishiguro, M., Kim, Y., Kim, J., et al. 2013, Astrophys. J., 778, 19Google Scholar
Jewitt, D., Yang, B., & Haghighipour, N. 2009, Astron. J., 137, 43134321Google Scholar
Jewitt, D., Weaver, H., Agarwal, J., Mutchler, M., & Drahus, M. 2010, Nature, 467, 817819Google Scholar
Jewitt, D., Weaver, H., Mutchler, M., Larson, S., & Agarwal, J. 2011, Astrophys. J. Letters, 733, L4Google Scholar
Jewitt, D., Agarwal, J., Weaver, H., Mutchler, M., & Larson, S. 2013, Astrophys. J. Letters, 778, L21CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jewitt, D., Agarwal, J., Li, J., Weaver, H., Mutchler, M., & Larson, S. 2014a, Astrophys. J. Letters, 784, L8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jewitt, D., Ishiguro, M., Weaver, H., Agarwal, J., Mutchler, M., & Larson, S. 2014b, Astron. J., 147, 117Google Scholar
Jewitt, D., Agarwal, J., Weaver, H., Mutchler, M., & Larson, S. 2015a, Astrophys. J., 798, 109Google Scholar
Jewitt, D., Agarwal, J., Peixinho, N., et al. 2015b, Astron. J., 149, 81Google Scholar
Jewitt, D., Hsieh, H. H., & Agarwal, J. 2015c, Asteroids IV (Univ. of Arizona Press: Tucson, AZ), in press (arXiv:1502.02361)Google Scholar
Jones, G. H., Altwegg, K., Bertini, I., et al. 2015, LPI Contributions, 1829, 6019Google Scholar
Kresák, L. 1980, Moon and the Planets, 22, 8398Google Scholar
Küppers, M., O'Rourke, L., Bockelée-Morvan, D., et al. 2014, Nature, 505, 525527Google Scholar
Levison, H. F. & Duncan, M. J. 1994, Icarus, 108, 1836Google Scholar
Licandro, J., Campins, H., Tozzi, G. P., de León, J., Pinilla-Alonso, N., Boehnhardt, H., & Hainaut, O. R. 2011, Astron. Astrophys., 532, A65Google Scholar
Licandro, J., Moreno, F., de León, J., Tozzi, G. P., Lara, L. M., & Cabrera-Lavers, A. 2013, Astron. Astrophys., 550, A17CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meech, K. J. & Castillo-Rogez, J. C. 2015, IAU General Assembly, 22, 57859Google Scholar
Morbidelli, A., Chambers, J., & Lunine, J. I. 2000, Meteoritics & Planet. Sci., 35, 13091320Google Scholar
Morbidelli, A., Lunine, J. I., O'Brien, D. P., Raymond, S. N., & Walsh, K. J. 2012, Ann. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci., 40, 251275Google Scholar
Moreno, F., Lara, L. M., Licandro, J., Ortiz, J. L., de León, J., Alí-Lagoa, V., Agís-González, B., & Molina, A. 2011, Astrophys. J. Letters, 738, L16Google Scholar
Moreno, F., Cabrera-Lavers, A., Vaduvescu, O., Licandro, J., & Pozuelos, F. 2013, Astrophys. J. Letters, 770, L30Google Scholar
Mottl, M., Glazer, B., Kaiser, R., & Meech, K. 2007, Chemie der Erde - Geochemistry, 67, 253282Google Scholar
Nesvorný, D., Bottke, W. F., Vokrouhlický, D., Sykes, M., Lien, D. J., & Stansberry, J. 2008, Astrophys. J. Letters, 679, L143L146Google Scholar
Novaković, B., Hsieh, H. H., & Cellino, A. 2012, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 424, 14321441Google Scholar
O'Rourke, L., Snodgrass, C., de Val-Borro, M., et al. 2013, Astrophys. J. Letters, 774, L13Google Scholar
Owen, T. 2008, Space Sci. Rev., 138, 301316Google Scholar
Pozuelos, F. J., Cabrera-Lavers, A., Licandro, J., & Moreno, F. 2015, Astrophys. J., 806, 102Google Scholar
Prialnik, D. & Rosenberg, E. D. 2009, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 399, L79L83CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Read, M. T., Bressi, T. H., Gehrels, T., Scotti, J. V., & Christensen, E. J. 2005, IAU Circ., 8624, 1Google Scholar
Scheeres, D. J. 2015, Icarus, 247, 117Google Scholar
Schörghofer, N. 2008, Astrophys. J., 682, 697705Google Scholar
Sheppard, S. S. & Trujillo, C. 2015, Astron. J., 149, 44Google Scholar
Snodgrass, C., Tubiana, C., Vincent, J.-B., et al. 2010, Nature, 467, 814816Google Scholar
Sonnett, S., Kleyna, J., Jedicke, R., & Masiero, J. R. 2011, Icarus, 215, 534546Google Scholar
Vaghi, S. 1973, Astron. Astrophys., 24, 107110Google Scholar
de Val-Borro, M., Rezac, L., Hartogh, P., et al. 2012, Astron. Astrophys., 546, L4Google Scholar
Waszczak, A., Ofek, E. O., Aharonson, O., Kulkarni, S. R., Polishook, D., Bauer, J. M., Levitan, D., Sesar, B., Laher, R., Surace, J., the PTF Team. 2013, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 433, 31153132Google Scholar