arXivDaily arXiv每日学术速递 周一至周五更新
arXiv 2003.04904astro-ph.EP
收藏

在遥远的半人马座发现彗星活动:非水升华机制

Cometary Activity Discovered on a Distant Centaur: A Non-Aqueous Sublimation Mechanism

Colin Orion Chandler, Jay K. Kueny, Chadwick A. Trujillo, David E. Trilling, William J. Oldroyd

摘要:

半人马座小行星被认为起源于外太阳系区域,即柯伊伯带。活跃的半人马座神秘地显示出彗星般的特征(例如,尽管它们在气态巨行星区域运行,那里太冷,水不易升华。自1927年以来,只有18个活跃的半人马座被确定,因此,到目前为止,其潜在的活动机制在很大程度上仍然未知。在这里,我们报告了从半人马座2014 OG 392发出的活动的发现,基于我们发现的档案图像以及我们自己用暗能量相机获得的新观测证据(托洛洛山美洲天文台布兰科4米望远镜),稻盛-麦哲伦区域照相机和摄谱仪(拉斯坎帕纳斯天文台6.5米沃尔特巴德望远镜)和大型单片成像仪(洛厄尔天文台4.3米发现频道望远镜)。我们在距离2014 OG 392 40万公里的地方探测到了一个昏迷,我们对升华过程和动力学寿命的新分析表明,二氧化碳和/或氨是导致这个和其他活跃半人马座活动的最有可能的候选者。我们发现2014 OG 392在光学上是红色的,但CO2和NH3在这个波长范围内是光谱中性的,因此红化剂尚未被识别。

英文摘要:

Centaurs are minor planets thought to have originated in the outer Solar System region known as the Kuiper Belt. Active Centaurs enigmatically display comet-like features (e.g., tails, comae) even though they orbit in the gas giant region where it is too cold for water to readily sublimate. Only 18 active Centaurs have been identified since 1927 and, consequently, the underlying activity mechanism(s) have remained largely unknown up to this point. Here we report the discovery of activity emanating from Centaur 2014 OG392, based on archival images we uncovered plus our own new observational evidence acquired with the Dark Energy Camera (Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory Blanco 4 m telescope), the Inamori-Magellan Areal Camera & Spectrograph (Las Campanas Observatory 6.5 m Walter Baade Telescope) and the Large Monolithic Imager (Lowell Observatory 4.3 m Discovery Channel Telescope). We detect a coma as far as 400,000 km from 2014 OG392, and our novel analysis of sublimation processes and dynamical lifetime suggest carbon dioxide and/or ammonia are the most likely candidates for causing activity on this and other active Centaurs. We find 2014 OG392 is optically red, but CO2 and NH3 are spectrally neutral in this wavelength regime so the reddening agent is as yet unidentified.

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

↑