2006
DOI: 10.1126/science.1125150
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A Population of Comets in the Main Asteroid Belt

Abstract: Comets are icy bodies that sublimate and become active when close to the Sun. They are believed to originate in two cold reservoirs beyond the orbit of Neptune: the Kuiper Belt (equilibrium temperatures of approximately 40 kelvin) and the Oort Cloud (approximately 10 kelvin). We present optical data showing the existence of a population of comets originating in a third reservoir: the main asteroid belt. The main-belt comets are unlike the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud comets in that they likely formed where they … Show more

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Cited by 457 publications
(367 citation statements)
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“…We expect that this will allow the identification of dozens of new young asteroid families and with the addition of five filter measurements we will be able to refine space weathering rate estimates Nesvorný et al(2002). Simple extrapolation of the discovery rates of MB comets Hsieh & Jewitt(2006) suggest that we may identify hundreds of this new class of objects. Perhaps most interesting of all is the opportunity of identifying collisions between MB objects too small to otherwise be observed.…”
Section: Pan-starrs and The Solar Systemmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…We expect that this will allow the identification of dozens of new young asteroid families and with the addition of five filter measurements we will be able to refine space weathering rate estimates Nesvorný et al(2002). Simple extrapolation of the discovery rates of MB comets Hsieh & Jewitt(2006) suggest that we may identify hundreds of this new class of objects. Perhaps most interesting of all is the opportunity of identifying collisions between MB objects too small to otherwise be observed.…”
Section: Pan-starrs and The Solar Systemmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Several main-belt comets (MBC) (Hsieh & Jewitt 2006) have been dynamically linked to the Themis family (Hsieh 2009;Novaković et al 2012). The source of sublimation in these MBCs is attributed to water ice buried beneath a layer of regolith several meters thick (Schorghofer 2008;Prialnik & Rosenberg 2009).…”
Section: Aqueous Alteration In the Themis Parent Bodymentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Meanwhile, many extrasolar systems with gas giant planets close to their stars have been discovered, presenting a challenge to formation models (e.g., Mayor and Queloz 1995;Winn and Fabrycky 2015). Finally, recent observations have uncovered evidence of ice in unexpected places in the inner Solar System, including the population of 'Main-Belt Comets' (MBCs) which have stable asteroidlike orbits, inside the snow line, but which demonstrate comet-like activity (Hsieh and Jewitt 2006).…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%