Bibcode
Moreno, F.; Licandro, J.; Mutchler, M.; Cabrera-Lavers, A.; Pinilla-Alonso, N.; Pozuelos, F. J.
Bibliographical reference
The Astronomical Journal, Volume 154, Issue 6, article id. 248, 4 pp. (2017).
Advertised on:
12
2017
Citations
4
Refereed citations
4
Description
After the early observations of the disrupted asteroid P/2016 G1 with
the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) and modeling of the dust
ejecta, we have performed a follow-up observational campaign of this
object using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) during two epochs (2016
June 28 and July 11). The analysis of these HST images with the same
model inputs obtained from the GTC images revealed a good consistency
with the predicted evolution from the GTC images, so that the model is
applicable to the entire observational period from 2016 late April to
early July. This result confirms that the resulting dust ejecta was
caused by a relatively short-duration event with onset about 350 days
before perihelion and spanning about 30 days (HWHM). For a size
distribution of particles with a geometric albedo of 0.15, having radii
limits of 1 μm and 1 cm, and following a power-law with index
‑3.0, the total dust mass ejected is ∼2 × 107
kg. As was the case with the GTC observations, no condensations in the
images that could be attributed to a nucleus or fragments released after
the disruption event were found. However, the higher limiting magnitude
reachable with the HST images in comparison to those from GTC allowed us
to impose a more stringent upper limit to the observed fragments of
∼30 m.
Related projects
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