Laurie Urban - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Laurie Urban

The Astrophysical Journal, 2012

Main belt asteroid (300163) 2006 VW 139 (later designated P/2006 VW 139) was discovered to exhibi... more Main belt asteroid (300163) 2006 VW 139 (later designated P/2006 VW 139) was discovered to exhibit comet-like activity by the Pan-STARRS1 survey telescope using automated point-spread-function analyses performed by PS1's Moving Object Processing System. Deep follow-up observations show both a short (∼ 10) antisolar dust tail and a longer (∼ 60) dust trail aligned with the object's orbit plane, similar to the morphology observed for another main-belt comet, P/2010 R2 (La Sagra), and other well-established comets, implying the action of a long-lived, sublimation-driven emission event. Photometry showing the brightness of the near-nucleus coma remaining constant over ∼ 30 days provides further evidence for this object's cometary nature, suggesting it is in fact a main-belt comet, and not a disrupted asteroid. A spectroscopic search for CN emission was unsuccessful, though we find an upper limit CN production rate of Q CN < 1.3 × 10 24 mol s −1 , from which we infer a water production rate of Q H2O < 10 26 mol s −1. We also find an approximately linear optical spectral slope of 7.2%/1000Å, similar to other cometary dust comae. Numerical simulations indicate that P/2006 VW 139 is dynamically stable for > 100 Myr, while a search for a potential asteroid family around the object reveals a cluster of 24 asteroids within a cutoff distance of 68 m s −1. At 70 m s −1 , this cluster merges with the Themis family, suggesting that it could be similar to the Beagle family to which another main-belt comet, 133P/Elst-Pizarro, belongs.

The Astrophysical Journal, 2012

Main belt asteroid (300163) 2006 VW 139 (later designated P/2006 VW 139) was discovered to exhibi... more Main belt asteroid (300163) 2006 VW 139 (later designated P/2006 VW 139) was discovered to exhibit comet-like activity by the Pan-STARRS1 survey telescope using automated point-spread-function analyses performed by PS1's Moving Object Processing System. Deep follow-up observations show both a short (∼ 10) antisolar dust tail and a longer (∼ 60) dust trail aligned with the object's orbit plane, similar to the morphology observed for another main-belt comet, P/2010 R2 (La Sagra), and other well-established comets, implying the action of a long-lived, sublimation-driven emission event. Photometry showing the brightness of the near-nucleus coma remaining constant over ∼ 30 days provides further evidence for this object's cometary nature, suggesting it is in fact a main-belt comet, and not a disrupted asteroid. A spectroscopic search for CN emission was unsuccessful, though we find an upper limit CN production rate of Q CN < 1.3 × 10 24 mol s −1 , from which we infer a water production rate of Q H2O < 10 26 mol s −1. We also find an approximately linear optical spectral slope of 7.2%/1000Å, similar to other cometary dust comae. Numerical simulations indicate that P/2006 VW 139 is dynamically stable for > 100 Myr, while a search for a potential asteroid family around the object reveals a cluster of 24 asteroids within a cutoff distance of 68 m s −1. At 70 m s −1 , this cluster merges with the Themis family, suggesting that it could be similar to the Beagle family to which another main-belt comet, 133P/Elst-Pizarro, belongs.