MAIN-BELT COMET P/2012 T1 (PANSTARRS)

• Main Authors: Hsieh, Henry H. (Author), Kaluna, Heather M. (Author), Novaković, Bojan (Author), Yang, Bin (Author), Haghighipour, Nader (Author), Micheli, Marco (Author), Denneau, Larry (Author), Fitzsimmons, Alan (Author), Jedicke, Robert (Author), Kleyna, Jan (Author), Vereš, Peter (Author), Wainscoat, Richard J. (Author), Ansdell, Megan (Author), Elliott, Garrett T. (Author), Keane, Jacqueline V. (Author), Meech, Karen J. (Author), Moskovitz, Nicholas (Contributor), Riesen, Timm E. (Author), Sheppard, Scott S. (Author), Sonnett, Sarah (Author), Tholen, David J. (Author), Urban, Laurie (Author), Kaiser, Nick (Author), Chambers, K. C. (Author), Burgett, William S. (Author), Magnier, Eugene A. (Author), Morgan, Jeffrey S. (Author), Price, Paul A. (Author)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Physics/American Astronomical Society, 2015-02-06T19:17:13Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

We present initial results from observations and numerical analyses aimed at characterizing the main-belt comet P/2012 T1 (PANSTARRS). Optical monitoring observations were made between 2012 October and 2013 February using the University of Hawaii 2.2 m telescope, the Keck I telescope, the Baade and Clay Magellan telescopes, Faulkes Telescope South, the Perkins Telescope at Lowell Observatory, and the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope. The object's intrinsic brightness approximately doubles from the time of its discovery in early October until mid-November and then decreases by ~60% between late December and early February, similar to photometric behavior exhibited by several other main-belt comets and unlike that exhibited by disrupted asteroid (596) Scheila. We also used Keck to conduct spectroscopic searches for CN emission as well as absorption at 0.7 μm that could indicate the presence of hydrated minerals, finding an upper limit CN production rate of Q[suscript CN] < 1.5 × 10[superscript 23] mol s[superscript -1], from which we infer a water production rate of Q[subscript H2O] < 5 x 10[superscript 25] mol s[superscript -1], and no evidence of the presence of hydrated minerals. Numerical simulations indicate that P/2012 T1 is largely dynamically stable for >100 Myr and is unlikely to be a recently implanted interloper from the outer solar system, while a search for potential asteroid family associations reveals that it is dynamically linked to the ~155 Myr old Lixiaohua asteroid family.
United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA Astrobiology Institute, cooperative agreement NNA09DA77A)
Space Telescope Science Institute (U.S.) (Hubble Fellowship grant HF-51274.01)
Serbia. Ministry of Science and Technological Development (Project 176011)
National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF grant AST-1010059)