We describe the physical and orbital properties of C/2011 W3. The postperihelion dust tail, observed for ~3 months, was the product of activity over <2 days. The high production rates of atomic ...oxygen, observed shortly after perihelion, are compatible with a subkilometer-sized nucleus. The loss of the nuclear condensation prevented an accurate orbital-period determination by traditional techniques. Since the missing nucleus must have been located on the synchrone, whose orientation and sunward tip have been measured, we compute the astrometric positions of this missing nucleus as the coordinates of the points of intersection of the spine tail's axis with the lines of forced orbital-period variation, derived from the orbital solutions based on high-quality preperihelion astrometry from the ground. The resulting orbit gives 698 + or - 2yr for the osculating orbital period, showing that C/2011 W3 is the first member of the expected new, 21st-century cluster of bright Kreutz-system sungrazers, whose existence was predicted by these authors in 2007.
'Oumuamua (1I/2017 U1) is the first known object of interstellar origin to have entered the Solar System on an unbound and hyperbolic trajectory with respect to the Sun
. Various physical ...observations collected during its visit to the Solar System showed that it has an unusually elongated shape and a tumbling rotation state
and that the physical properties of its surface resemble those of cometary nuclei
, even though it showed no evidence of cometary activity
. The motion of all celestial bodies is governed mostly by gravity, but the trajectories of comets can also be affected by non-gravitational forces due to cometary outgassing
. Because non-gravitational accelerations are at least three to four orders of magnitude weaker than gravitational acceleration, the detection of any deviation from a purely gravity-driven trajectory requires high-quality astrometry over a long arc. As a result, non-gravitational effects have been measured on only a limited subset of the small-body population
. Here we report the detection, at 30σ significance, of non-gravitational acceleration in the motion of 'Oumuamua. We analyse imaging data from extensive observations by ground-based and orbiting facilities. This analysis rules out systematic biases and shows that all astrometric data can be described once a non-gravitational component representing a heliocentric radial acceleration proportional to r
or r
(where r is the heliocentric distance) is included in the model. After ruling out solar-radiation pressure, drag- and friction-like forces, interaction with solar wind for a highly magnetized object, and geometric effects originating from 'Oumuamua potentially being composed of several spatially separated bodies or having a pronounced offset between its photocentre and centre of mass, we find comet-like outgassing to be a physically viable explanation, provided that 'Oumuamua has thermal properties similar to comets.
Abstract
Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are a transient population of small bodies with orbits near or in the terrestrial planet region. They represent a mid-stage in the dynamical cycle of asteroids and ...comets, which starts with their removal from the respective source regions—the main belt and trans-Neptunian scattered disk—and ends as bodies impact planets, disintegrate near the Sun, or are ejected from the solar system. Here we develop a new orbital model of NEOs by numerically integrating asteroid orbits from main-belt sources and calibrating the results on observations of the Catalina Sky Survey. The results imply a size-dependent sampling of the main belt with the
ν
6
and 3:1 resonances producing ≃30% of NEOs with absolute magnitudes
H
= 15 and ≃80% of NEOs with
H
= 25. Hence, the large and small NEOs have different orbital distributions. The inferred flux of
H
< 18 bodies into the 3:1 resonance can be sustained only if the main-belt asteroids near the resonance drift toward the resonance at the maximal Yarkovsky rate (≃2 × 10
−4
au Myr
−1
for diameter
D
= 1 km and semimajor axis
a
= 2.5 au). This implies obliquities
θ
≃ 0° for
a
< 2.5 au and
θ
≃ 180° for
a
> 2.5 au, both in the immediate neighborhood of the resonance (the same applies to other resonances as well). We confirm the size-dependent disruption of asteroids near the Sun found in previous studies. An interested researcher can use the publicly available NEOMOD Simulator to generate user-defined samples of NEOs from our model.
The Impact and Recovery of Asteroid 2018 LA Jenniskens, Peter; Gabadirwe, Mohutsiwa; Yin, Qing-Zhu ...
Meteoritics & planetary science,
April 2021, Letnik:
56, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The June 2, 2018 impact of asteroid 2018 LA over Botswana is only the second asteroid detected in space prior to impacting over land. Here, we report on the successful recovery of meteorites. ...Additional astrometric data refine the approach orbit and define the spin period and shape of the asteroid. Video observations of the fireball constrain the asteroid's position in its orbit and were used to triangulate the location of the fireball's main flare over the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Twenty-three meteorites were recovered. A consortium study of eight of these classifies Motopi Pan as an HED polymict breccia derived from howardite, cumulate and basaltic eucrite, and diogenite lithologies. Before impact, 2018 LA was a solid rock of ~156 cm diameter with high bulk density ~2.85 g cm^(−3), a relatively low albedo pV ~ 0.25, no significant opposition effect on the asteroid brightness, and an impact kinetic energy of ~0.2 kt. The orbit of 2018 LA is consistent with an origin at Vesta (or its Vestoids) and delivery into an Earth-impacting orbit via the ν6 resonance. The impact that ejected 2018 LA in an orbit toward Earth occurred 22.8 ± 3.8 Ma ago. Zircons record a concordant U-Pb age of 4563 ± 11 Ma and a consistent 207Pb/206Pb age of 4563 ± 6 Ma. A much younger Pb-Pb phosphate resetting age of 4234 ± 41 Ma was found. From this impact chronology, we discuss what is the possible source crater of Motopi Pan and the age of Vesta's Veneneia impact basin.
•Estimated trajectory and impact circumstances of 2014 AA.•Combined optical astrometry and infrasound data in the orbit determination process.•Significantly improved orbital uncertainties over the ...astrometry-only solution.•Ruled out the possibility of precovery observations prior to the final approach.
Near-Earth asteroid 2014 AA entered the Earth’s atmosphere on 2014 January 2, only 21 h after being discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey. In this paper we compute the trajectory of 2014 AA by combining the available optical astrometry, seven ground-based observations over 69 min, and the International Monitoring System detection of the atmospheric impact infrasonic airwaves in a least-squares orbit estimation filter. The combination of these two sources of observations results in a tremendous improvement in the orbit uncertainties. The impact time is 3:05 UT with a 1σ uncertainty of 6 min, while the impact location corresponds to a west longitude of 44.2° and a latitude of 13.1° with a 1σ uncertainty of 140 km. The minimum impact energy estimated from the infrasound data and the impact velocity result in an estimated minimum mass of 22.6 t. By propagating the trajectory of 2014 AA backwards we find that the only window for finding precovery observations is for the three days before its discovery.
1I/'Oumuamua is the first confirmed interstellar body in our solar system. Here we report on observations of 'Oumuamua made with the Spitzer Space Telescope on 2017 November 21-22 (UT). We integrated ...for 30.2 hr at 4.5 m (IRAC channel 2). We did not detect the object and place an upper limit on the flux of 0.3 Jy (3 ). This implies an effective spherical diameter less than 98, 140, 440 m and albedo greater than 0.2, 0.1, 0.01 under the assumption of low, middle, or high thermal beaming parameter , respectively. With an aspect ratio for 'Oumuamua of 6:1, these results correspond to dimensions of 240:40, 341:57, 1080:180 m, respectively. We place upper limits on the amount of dust, CO, and CO2 coming from this object that are lower than previous results; we are unable to constrain the production of other gas species. Both our size and outgassing limits are important because 'Oumuamua's trajectory shows non-gravitational accelerations that are sensitive to size and mass and presumably caused by gas emission. We suggest that 'Oumuamua may have experienced low-level post-perihelion volatile emission that produced a fresh, bright, icy mantle. This model is consistent with the expected value and implied high-albedo value for this solution, but, given our strict limits on CO and CO2, requires another gas species-probably H2O-to explain the observed non-gravitational acceleration. Our results extend the mystery of 'Oumuamua's origin and evolution.
This paper analyzes the current population of known near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and presents statistics on the recoverability of NEAs with both targeted observation campaigns and all-sky surveys. For ...an asteroid to be observable at a future apparition, given the right geometry, the plane-of-sky uncertainty must be small enough to be covered by a telescope's field of view and the asteroid must be brighter than the detector's limiting magnitude. Since recoverability is a telescope-dependent property, we select two representative instruments that span a wide range of capability and availability: the 1.0 m I52 telescope of the Catalina Sky Survey and the Hyper Suprime-Cam of the 8.2 m Subaru telescope. Based on this choice, we classify asteroids as recoverable, potentially recoverable, and not recoverable depending on whether they could be detected with an I52-class telescope, only with a Subaru-class telescope, or with neither, respectively. Using these definitions, we find that the majority (90%) of NEAs with H < 22 and most (93%) potentially hazardous asteroids are recoverable or potentially recoverable in the next 50 yr. When considering fainter asteroids down to H ≤ 28, about two-thirds of the NEA population and half of the low minimum-orbit intersection distance (MOID) asteroids (MOID ≤ 0.05 au) are either recoverable or potentially recoverable. As of 2019 October 13, the Sentry risk list includes 193 objects with an impact probability greater than 10−6 that are not recoverable. The fraction of NEAs and low-MOID NEAs that are not recoverable can be reduced by up to 47% and 43%, respectively, when incorporating statistical estimates of serendipitous recoveries by all-sky surveys.
The impact trajectory of asteroid 2008 TC3 Farnocchia, Davide; Jenniskens, Peter; Robertson, Darrel K. ...
Icarus (New York, N.Y. 1962),
09/2017, Letnik:
294
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
•2008 TC3 was the first ever predicted impact of an asteroid.•We compute the trajectory of 2008 TC3 using almost 900 astrometric observations.•The 3-sigma impact ellipse is 1.4 km × 0.15 km at the ...entry point into the atmosphere.•The ground track is compatible with the location of recovered meteorites.
The impact of asteroid 2008 TC3 was an unprecedented event—the first ever predicted impact of a near-Earth object. When it was first detected about 20 h before impact, 2008 TC3 was still farther away than the Moon. Once it was recognized as an impactor and announced as such, 2008 TC3 began to receive considerable attention from astronomical observers. Using the unprecedented dataset of nearly 900 astrometric observations and the latest observation debiasing and weighting techniques, we estimate the precise trajectory of 2008 TC3 and its impact ground track. At the entry point into the atmosphere, the 3-σ formal uncertainty in predicted position is an ellipse only 1.4 km × 0.15 km in size. The locations of the many meteorites recovered from the desert floor mark the asteroid’s actual ground track and provide a unique opportunity to validate trajectory models. We find that the second-order zonal harmonics of the Earth gravity field moves the ground track by more than 1 km and the location along the ground track by more than 2 km, while non-zonal and higher order harmonics change the impact prediction by less than 20 m. The contribution of atmospheric drag to the trajectory of 2008 TC3 is similar to the numerical integration error level, a few meters, down to an altitude of 50 km. Integrating forward to lower altitudes and ignoring the break-up of 2008 TC3, atmospheric drag causes an along-track deviation that can be as large as a few kilometers at sea level.
This paper reports the first OH 18 cm line observation of the first detected interstellar object 1I/2017 U1 ('Oumuamua) using the Green Bank Telescope. We have observed the OH lines at 1665.402, ...1667.359, and 1720.53 MHz frequencies with a spectral resolution of 357 Hz (approximately 0.06 km s−1). At the time of the observation, 'Oumuamua was at topocentric distance and velocity of 1.07 au and 63.4 km s−1, respectively, or at heliocentric distance and velocity of 1.8 au and 39 km s−1, respectively. Based on a detailed data reduction and an analogy-based inversion, our final results confirm the asteroidal origin of 'Oumuamua with an upper bound OH production of QOH < 0.17 × 1028 s−1.
The B-plane is a fundamental tool to analyze planetary encounters of small bodies and spacecraft flybys. In this paper, we review the B-plane formulation with a full derivation of its coordinates and ...their partial derivatives, which allow the mapping of orbital uncertainties onto the B-plane. We find that this mapping can be sensitive to variations in the inbound asymptote, especially for low-velocity encounters, and to non-Keplerian dynamics for distant encounters. Under linearity assumptions, we show how to derive close approach boundaries and impact probabilities from the orbital uncertainty mapped onto the B-plane.
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