Search for Activity in Comet-Asteroid Transition Object 107P/Wilson-Harrington

Details Search for Activity in Comet-Asteroid Transition Object 107P/Wilson-Harrington Search for Activity in Comet-Asteroid Transition Object 107P/Wilson-Harrington

Oct 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.2802k&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #28.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.960

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Scientific paper

Comet-asteroid transition object 107P/Wilson-Harrington was observed near its October 22, 2009 perihelion passage to search for activity. No activity was detected. Consequently, we place limits on possible dust production of 0.013 kg/s at 1.23 AU. Furthermore, the data was not sufficient to constrain a rotation period; however, it is clear that the rotation period is > 4hr. Our data is consistent with the observations of others (6.1 hr). Phase function fitting yielded a value of the phase coefficient beta= 0.0406 ± .0001 mag/deg, similar to C-type asteroids that have a linear phase curve at large phase angles. Thermal models for 107P/Wilson-Harrington show that the average loss rate of exposed crystalline ice at zero latitude is in the order of 0.3 meters/year. The derived high loss rate suggests that 107P/Wilson-Harrington is deprived of surface ice. Our observations and analysis confirm earlier findings that 107P/Wilson-Harrington is an example of the very few such objects discovered so far. Such study we made is a critical next step in understanding the life of dormant comets, and a window into the evolutionary end states of the lives of comets that become extinct. This work has been supported in part by AST-0807521 from the National Science Foundation.

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