Heidelberg 2022 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik
EP 3: Planets and Small bodies
EP 3.7: Vortrag
Dienstag, 22. März 2022, 12:45–13:00, EP-H1
Binary main-belt comet 288P — •Jessica Agarwal1,2 and Yoonyoung Kim1 — 1Institut für Geophysik und Extraterrestrische Physik, TU Braunschweig — 2Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Göttingen
Main-belt comets are asteroids that activate during subsequent perihelion passages, emitting dust like comets. The object 288P is currently the only known comet-like object that is also a gravitationally bound binary system. While binaries are common in the asteroid population, 288P is special even among these because of its combination of two similarly sized components and wide separation of about 100 times the object radius.
Possible formation scenarios include the likely involvement of rotational splitting, radiation-induced torques and outgassing-induced torques, but the detailed evolutionary history of the system remains to be understood. A key question in this context is whether one or both components are active.
We present data obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope in autumn 2021 that show the onset of activity in 288P as it approached perihelion.