Peculiar Pair of Distant Periodic Comets C/2002 A1 and C/2002 A2 (LINEAR)

Sekanina, Z.; Chodas, P. W.; Tichý, M.; Tichá, J.; Kocer, M.

doi:10.1086/376977

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Moreover, a growing number of observations show activity in distant comets (e.g., ∼20-25 au in the case of C/2014 UN271 Bernardinelli-Bernstein, Farnham et al 2021; and even 35 au in the case of C/2017 K2 (Pan-STARRS), Jewitt et al 2021). Fragmentation has also been inferred at very large distances, for example, in comets C/2002 A1 and A2, reported to have split from a common parent when inbound at r H ∼ 22.5 au (Sekanina et al 2003). Water ice is involatile beyond 5 or 6 au, and the sublimation of a more volatile material, perhaps carbon monoxide (CO) ice, is a leading candidate for driving this distant cometary activity.…”

Section: Relation To the Oort Fading Parametermentioning

confidence: 99%

Destruction of Long-period Comets

Jewitt

2022

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We identify a sample of 27 long-period comets for which both nongravitational accelerations and Lyα-based gas production rates are available. Seven of the 27 comets (i.e., ∼25%) did not survive perihelion because of nucleus fragmentation or complete disintegration. Empirically, the latter nuclei have the smallest gas production rates and the largest nongravitational accelerations, which are both indicators of small size. Specifically, the disintegrating nuclei have a median radius of only 0.41 km, one-quarter of the 1.60 km median radius of those surviving perihelion. The disintegrating comets also have a smaller median perihelion distance (0.48 au) than do the survivors (0.99 au). We compare the order-of-magnitude timescale for outgassing torques to change the nucleus spin, τ s , with the time spent by each comet in strong sublimation, Δt, finding that the disrupted comets are those with τ s < Δt. The destruction of near-Sun long-period comets is thus naturally explained as a consequence of rotational breakup. We discuss this process as a contributor to Oort’s long mysterious “fading parameter.”

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Section: Relation To the Oort Fading Parametermentioning

confidence: 99%

Destruction of Long-period Comets

Jewitt

2022

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“…These two objects are on very similar Centaur-like orbits with semimajor axes of 18 AU, perihelia at 4.7 AU and aphelia at 31 AU and nearly identical eccentricities, inclinations and magnitudes (Spahr et al 2002). Sekanina et al (2003) used their comet fragmentation code and repeated astrometric observations to infer that the pair split non-tidally at a distance of ∼22 AU from the Sun in the recent past. However, they did not consider the possibility of a preexisting binary in their model and it is unclear what observable differences, if any, one might expect between a single, internally fractured progenitor and a tight binary.…”

Section: Where Are the Binary Comets?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Discovery of a binary Centaur

Noll

Levison

Grundy

et al. 2006

Icarus

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“…Our approach was able to recover the following comets (distributions shown in Fig. 4), all known to have fragments: 51P/Harrington (Kidger & Manteca 2002) Sekanina et al (2003), the pair 169P/NEAT and P/2003 T12 (SOHO) found by Sosa & Fernández (2015), the pair C/1996 Q1 (Tabur) and C/2015 F3 (SWAN) identified by Sekanina & Kracht (2016), and a number of previously unknown ones (non-exhaustive list), 10P/Tempel 2 and P/2015 T3 (PANSTARRS), 208P/McMillan and P/2011 Q3 (McNaught), 342P/SOHO and P/2002 S7 (SOHO), 16P/Brooks 2 and 307P/LINEAR, and 285P/LINEAR and P/2013 N5 (PANSTARRS). Of particular interest could be P/2010 B2 (WISE) that appears to be related to the multiple fragments of comet 332P/Ikeya-Murakami, confirming the analysis carried out by Hui, Ye & Wiegert (2017a).…”

Section: Relevant Global Distributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamically correlated minor bodies in the outer Solar system

Marcos

2017

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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The organization of the orbits of most minor bodies in the Solar system seems to follow random patterns, the result of billions of years of chaotic dynamical evolution. Much as heterogeneous orbital behaviour is ubiquitous, dynamically coherent pairs and groups of objects are also present everywhere. Although first studied among the populations of asteroids and comets that inhabit or traverse the inner Solar system, where they are very numerous, at least one asteroid family has been confirmed to exist in the outer Solar system and two other candidates have been proposed in the literature. Here, we perform a systematic search for statistically significant pairs and groups of dynamically correlated objects through those with semimajor axis greater than 25 au, applying a novel technique that uses the angular separations of orbital poles and perihelia together with the differences in time of perihelion passage to single out pairs of relevant objects. Our analysis recovers well-known, dynamically coherent pairs and groups of comets and trans-Neptunian objects and uncovers a number of new ones, prime candidates for further spectroscopic study.

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Peculiar Pair of Distant Periodic Comets C/2002 A1 and C/2002 A2 (LINEAR)

Cited by 4 publications

References 3 publications

Destruction of Long-period Comets

Destruction of Long-period Comets

Discovery of a binary Centaur

Dynamically correlated minor bodies in the outer Solar system

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