Early evolution of disrupted asteroid P/2016 G1 (PANSTARRS)
We present deep imaging observations of activated asteroid P/2016 G1 (PANSTARRS) using the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) from 2016 late April to early June. The images are best interpreted as the result of a relatively short-duration event with an onset of about 350(+30)(-10) days before per...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Formato: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión aceptada para publicación |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2016 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/139413 |
| Acesso em linha: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/139413 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palavra-chave: | Methods: numerical Minor planets Asteroids: individual (P/2016 G1 (PANSTARRS)) |
| Resumo: | We present deep imaging observations of activated asteroid P/2016 G1 (PANSTARRS) using the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) from 2016 late April to early June. The images are best interpreted as the result of a relatively short-duration event with an onset of about 350(+30)(-10) days before perihelion (i.e., around 2016 February 10), starting sharply and decreasing with 24(-7)(+10) days (HWHM). The results of the modeling imply that the emission of similar to 1.7. x. 10(7) kg of dust, if composed of particles of 1 mu m to 1 cm in radius, is distributed following a power law of index -3 and having a geometric albedo of 0.15. A detailed fitting of a conspicuous westward feature in the head of the comet-like object indicates that a significant fraction of the dust was ejected along a privileged direction right at the beginning of the event, which suggests that the parent body has possibly suffered an impact followed by a partial or total disruption. From the limiting magnitude reachable with the instrumental setup, and assuming a geometric albedo of 0.15 for the parent body, an upper limit for the size of possible fragment debris of similar to 50 m in radius is derived. |
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