Motion of the Activity Source Associated with Active Centaur 174P/Echeclus (60558)

Details Motion of the Activity Source Associated with Active Centaur 174P/Echeclus (60558) Motion of the Activity Source Associated with Active Centaur 174P/Echeclus (60558)

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.3706w&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #37.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.551

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

3

Scientific paper

Centaur (60558) Echeclus was discovered to be active by Choi et al. (IAUC 8656, 2006) on December 30, 2005 and subsequently renamed comet 174P/Echeclus. Observations during the next five months showed that the apparent source of activity moved away from the primary body to a maximum distance of 7 arc-seconds, a projected distance of 65,000 km at the comet, in late February, 2006. The activity source then moved back towards and past the primary to only 2.7 arc-seconds in early May, 2006. Although the apparent motion suggested an orbiting secondary, the speed with which the secondary moved over the distances involved is inconsistent with reasonable estimates of the mass of the primary, by a factor of 200 or more. We thus believe that the secondary object is more likely moving on a hyperbolic orbit relative to the primary. Plausible explanations for the existence of the active secondary are: (1) a large fragment ejected from the primary in a disruption event; (2) an impact on the primary by another small solar system body; or (3) an escaped satellite of the primary. The lack of comparable activity from the primary body at the site of the disruption or impact argues against explanations (1) and (2). Although the existence of a Centaur with a satellite is highly plausible, it is doubtful that nongravitatonal forces resulting from outgassing at that heliocentric distance would be sufficient to explain the escape. Additional details of this unusual object will be explored. This work was supported by the NASA Planetary Astronomy Program and was performed in part at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory under contract with NASA. YJC is grateful for the support of the NASA Post-doctoral Program.

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