Minor planet 1566 Icarus: Asteroid or comet?

Details Minor planet 1566 Icarus: Asteroid or comet? Minor planet 1566 Icarus: Asteroid or comet?

Oct 1991

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1991plas.rept..188y&link_type=abstract

In NASA, Washington, Reports of Planetary Astronomy, 1991 p 188 (SEE N92-12792 03-89)

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Asteroids, Astrometry, Comets, Ice, Identifying, Outgassing, Planets, Radar Data, Water, Aphelions, Identities, Optical Radar, Populations, Solar System

Scientific paper

By employing a cometary nongravitational force model, based on the outgassing of a water ice nucleus, the orbital fits to the optical and radar astrometric data are improved for both Apollo and Icarus. A reliable value for the magnitude of these nongravitational effects can be determined for Icarus, but not Apollo. Because Icarus is less than a kilometer in extent, the small amount of outgassing required to explain its anomalous orbital behavior would probably not be sufficient to create an easily visible coma. While these results do not prove that 1566 Icarus is an active comet masquerading as an asteroid, this object certainly deserves future scrutiny to determine its true identity. A near-Earth asteroid showing cometary activity must represent only the tip of a much larger cometary iceburg. For such an object whose aphelion is well inside Jupiter's orbit, the time scale for losing its volatiles is much shorter than the time scale for evolving out of the inner solar system. Thus, for each active member of the near-Earth asteroid population, there must be many more that are temporarily or permanently inactive.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Minor planet 1566 Icarus: Asteroid or comet? does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Minor planet 1566 Icarus: Asteroid or comet?, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Minor planet 1566 Icarus: Asteroid or comet? will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1877013