Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Oct 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.5402r&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #54.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.523
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
More than ten Centaurs are now known to have cometary activity at large heliocentric distance (i.e. at about 5-13AU). Among these objects 174P/Echeclus, that showed cometary activity at 13AU from the Sun, is a unique case because: (i) the amplitude of its outburst, (ii) the source of cometary activity which appears distinct from Echeclus itself.
We have investigated the physical conditions that have led to this unusual outburst by quantifying this phenomenon and providing observational constraints for its modeling. We have used observations from different telescopes, performed before, during and after the outburst. The main observations were performed on 23 and 30 March 2006 with the 8.2-m ESO Very Large Telescope and FORS1 instrument. They consist in visible images and spectra.
Our main results are: (i) a cometary source distinct from Echeclus itself and that presents a brightness distribution compatible with a diffuse source, (ii) no emission lines (CN and C2) can be detected in the visible range, (iii) the upper limits for the CN and C2 production rates are, respectively, about 3.8x1025 and 1026 molecules.s-1, (iv) no Echeclus' satellite can be detected before the outburst up to about MR=26, (v) the upper limit for the object generating the coma is about 8km in diameter, (vi) no cometary activity can be detected one year later, in March 2007.
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