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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2016

Henry H. Hsieh
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: hhsieh@asiaa.sinica.edu.tw Planetary Science Institute1700 East Fort Lowell Road, Suite 106Tucson, Arizona 85719, United States of America email: hhsieh@psi.edu
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Abstract

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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.

Keywords

comets: generalminor planetsasteroidsastrobiologymethods: n-body simulationsmethods: numericaltechniques: photometrictechniques: spectroscopicsurveys
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 10 , Issue S318: Asteroids: New Observations, New Models , August 2015 , pp. 99 - 110
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2016 

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