An Upper Limit on Gas Production by 3200 Phaethon from Millimeter and Sub-millimeter Observations

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Asteroid 3200 Phaethon shares some of the characteristics of comets, including a highly-eccentric orbit and a strong associated meteor shower (the Geminids). Yet this object has never been observed to exhibit any gas or dust production and is classified as an asteroid. We observed 3200 Phaethon with the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory on two occasions, once while it was near closest approach to Earth as it neared perihelion, and another post-perihelion. Observations of the J=2-1 and J=3-2 rotational transitions of carbon monoxide (CO), typically strong lines in comets and indicative of gas production, yielded no detection. Upper limits on the CO production of 1.8e28 molecules per second and 7.6e28 molecules per second for Phaethon were determined on these two occasions.This work was supported in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory is funded by the NSF through contract AST 05-40882.

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