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Abstract We announce the discovery of cometary activity emitting from minor planet 2018 VL10in Dark Energy Camera images spanning from UT 2018 December 31 to UT 2019 March 3. The activity was identified by volunteers of our NASA Partner programActive Asteroids, aZooniverse-hosted Citizen Science project designed to find previously unknown activity in known minor planets. Notably, 2018 VL10crosses the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and experiences close approaches of less than 0.5 au with both Earth and Jupiter. We classify 2018 VL10as a member of the Jupiter-family comets, a group of objects especially important to understand because they hold important clues about the solar system volatile distribution, past and present.
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Cometary Activity Discovered on Vacationing Centaur 2019 OE31
Abstract We have detected cometary activity on minor planet 2019 OE31through both theActive AsteroidsCitizen Science program and an independent archival search. Before 2013, 2019 OE31was on a Centaur orbit, between the orbits of Jupiter and Neptune. Centaurs are objects in transition from the outer solar system to the inner solar system. They play a vital role in the understanding of the Kuiper Belt and comets. In 2013 October, following a close encounter with Jupiter, 2019 OE31moved to an orbit entirely interior to that of Jupiter. This reduced orbital distance and, hence, increased temperature is likely the cause of the observed activity. Through a suite of orbital dynamics simulations, we find that 2019 OE31will experience many more similar encounters and is statistically likely to return to a Centaur orbit, potentially within the next 80 yr, from its current “vacation.”
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- Award ID(s):
- 1950901
- PAR ID:
- 10479811
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.3847
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Research Notes of the AAS
- Volume:
- 7
- Issue:
- 12
- ISSN:
- 2515-5172
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: Article No. 270
- Size(s):
- Article No. 270
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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