MULTIBAND OPTICAL OBSERVATION OF THE P/2010 A2 DUST TAIL
- 303-201, Mokdong Apartment, Mok-5-dong, Yangcheon-gu, Seoul 158-753 (Korea, Republic of)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, San 56-1, Silim-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742 (Korea, Republic of)
- Ishigakijima Astronomical Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Ishigaki, Okinawa 907-0024 (Japan)
- Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Chuo-ku, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-5210 (Japan)
- Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Asaguchi, Okayama 719-0232 (Japan)
- National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588 (Japan)
- Hiroshima Astrophysical Science Center, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8526 (Japan)
An inner main-belt asteroid, P/2010 A2, was discovered on 2010 January 6. Based on its orbital elements, it is considered that the asteroid belongs to the Flora collisional family, where S-type asteroids are common, while showing a comet-like dust tail. Although analysis of images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and Rosetta spacecraft suggested that the dust tail resulted from a recent head-on collision between asteroids, an alternative idea of ice sublimation was suggested based on the morphological fitting of ground-based images. Here, we report a multiband observation of P/2010 A2 made on 2010 January with a 105 cm telescope at the Ishigakijima Astronomical Observatory. Three broadband filters, g', R{sub c} , and I{sub c} , were employed for the observation. The unique multiband data reveal that the reflectance spectrum of the P/2010 A2 dust tail resembles that of an Sq-type asteroid or that of ordinary chondrites rather than that of an S-type asteroid. Due to the large error of the measurement, the reflectance spectrum also resembles the spectra of C-type asteroids, even though C-type asteroids are uncommon in the Flora family. The reflectances relative to the g' band (470 nm) are 1.096 {+-} 0.046 at the R{sub c} band (650 nm) and 1.131 {+-} 0.061 at the I{sub c} band (800 nm). We hypothesize that the parent body of P/2010 A2 was originally S-type but was then shattered upon collision into scattering fresh chondritic particles from the interior, thus forming the dust tail.
- OSTI ID:
- 22048053
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 746, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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