The Peculiar Object P/2010 A2 (LINEAR)

Details The Peculiar Object P/2010 A2 (LINEAR) The Peculiar Object P/2010 A2 (LINEAR)

Mar 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010sptz.prop..544k&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #544

Physics

Scientific paper

We propose an 8.3 hr low-impact Target of Opportunity DDT proposal to assess the nature of the newly discovered comet P/2010 A2 (LINEAR) and the associated asteroid 2010 AA15 with Spitzer/IRAC. The orbital elements of comet A2 and asteroid AA15 securely place them in the inner-asteroid belt and close to the Flora family of asteroids. The existence of cometary objects within the asteroid belt is a hot topic in planetary science because it blurs the distinction between the comets and asteroids and opens the possibility of significant volatile content in asteroids. However, comet A2 may instead be the result of a never before seen collision between two asteroids. This provides us with a unique opportunity to measure the amount of dust produced in sub-km asteroid collisions and to provide "ground-truth" measurements of the dust observed in debris disks around main sequence stars. Our proposed program will measure the optical depth and color of the dust, allow us to search for thermal emission from the asteroid as well as molecular emission from CO or CO2 gas.

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