CaltechAUTHORS
Published March 2021 | Version Published + Submitted
Journal Article Open

Initial Characterization of Active Transitioning Centaur, P/2019 LD₂ (ATLAS), Using Hubble, Spitzer, ZTF, Keck, Apache Point Observatory, and GROWTH Visible and Infrared Imaging and Spectroscopy

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 2. ROR icon Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
  • 3. ROR icon University of Central Florida
  • 4. ROR icon Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
  • 5. ROR icon University of Southern Queensland
  • 6. ROR icon Southwest Research Institute
  • 7. ROR icon National Central University
  • 8. ROR icon San Diego State University
  • 9. ROR icon Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
  • 10. ROR icon University of Maryland, College Park
  • 11. ROR icon University of Washington
  • 12. ROR icon Auburn University
  • 13. ROR icon Liverpool John Moores University
  • 14. ROR icon Space Telescope Science Institute
  • 15. ROR icon Johns Hopkins University
  • 16. ROR icon Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe
  • 17. ROR icon University of Minnesota
  • 18. ROR icon Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • 19. ROR icon Weizmann Institute of Science

Abstract

We present visible and mid-infrared imagery and photometry of temporary Jovian co-orbital comet P/2019 LD₂ taken with Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3 (HST/WFC3), Spitzer Space Telescope/Infrared Array Camera (Spitzer/IRAC), and the GROWTH telescope network, visible spectroscopy from Keck/Low-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS), and archival Zwicky Transient Facility observations taken between 2019 April and 2020 August. Our observations indicate that the nucleus of LD₂ has a radius between 0.2 and 1.8 km assuming a 0.08 albedo and a coma dominated by ~100 μm-scale dust ejected at ~1 m s⁻¹ speeds with a ~1' jet pointing in the southwest direction. LD₂ experienced a total dust mass loss of ~10⁸ kg at a loss rate of ~6 kg s⁻¹ with Afρ/cross section varying between ~85 cm/125 km² and ~200 cm/310 km² from 2019 April 9 to 2019 November 8. If the increase in Afρ/cross section remained constant, it implies LD₂'s activity began ~2018 November when within 4.8 au of the Sun, implying the onset of H₂O sublimation. We measure CO/CO₂ gas production of ≾10²⁷ mol s⁻¹/≾10²⁶ mol s⁻¹ from our 4.5 μm Spitzer observations; g–r = 0.59 ± 0.03, r–i = 0.18 ± 0.05, and i–z = 0.01 ± 0.07 from GROWTH observations; and H₂O gas production of ≾80 kg s⁻¹ scaling from our estimated C₂ production of Q_(C₂) ≾7.5×10²⁴ mol s⁻¹ from Keck/LRIS spectroscopy. We determine that the long-term orbit of LD₂ is similar to Jupiter-family comets having close encounters with Jupiter within ~0.5 Hill radius in the last ~3 y and within 0.8 Hill radius in ~9 y. Additionally, 78.8% of our orbital clones are ejected from the solar system within 1 × 10⁶ yr, having a dynamical half-life of 3.4 × 10⁵ yr.

Additional Information

© 2021 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2020 November 6; revised 2020 December 21; accepted 2021 January 5; published 2021 February 11. The authors wish to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their help in revising this manuscript, which greatly improved its text. This work is based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope obtained from the Data Archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Incorporated, under NASA contract NAS5-26555. Support for program GO 16077 was provided through a grant from the STScI under NASA contract NAS5-26555. This work is based on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which was operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA. This work is based on observations obtained with the Samuel Oschin Telescope 48 inch and the 60 inch Telescope at the Palomar Observatory as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility project. ZTF is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant No. AST-1440341 and a collaboration including Caltech, IPAC, the Weizmann Institute for Science, the Oskar Klein Center at Stockholm University, the University of Maryland, the University of Washington, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and Humboldt University, Los Alamos National Laboratories, the TANGO Consortium of Taiwan, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. Operations are conducted by COO, IPAC, and UW. The Liverpool Telescope is operated on the island of La Palma by Liverpool John Moores University in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias with financial support from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. This work was supported by the GROWTH project funded by the National Science Foundation under PIRE Grant No. 1545949. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. The authors wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Maunakea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain. B.T.B., G.H., and F.J.M. acknowledge support from NASA with grant No. 80NSSC19K0780. C.F. gratefully acknowledges the support of his research by the Heising-Simons Foundation (2018-0907). M.W.C. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation with grant No. PHY-2010970. This publication has made use of data collected at Lulin Observatory, partly supported by MoST grant 108-2112-M-008-001. C.C.N. gratefully acknowledges the funding from MOST grant 104-2923-M-008-004-MY5. The authors would like to acknowledge the helpful discussion of P/2019 LD2 with L. Woodney and Q.-Z. Ye. This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC; https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium). Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. Facilities: Hubble Space Telescope - , Spitzer Space Telescope - , Keck I Telescope - , P48 Oschin Schmidt telescope/Zwicky Transient Facility - , Apache Point Astrophysical Research Consortium 3.5 m telescope - , Liverpool Telescope - , Lulin Optical Telescope - , Mount Laguna Observatory 40 inch Telescope. - Software: Small Body Python, ZChecker, LPipe, REBOUND.

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Submitted - 2011.03782.pdf

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Additional details

Additional titles

Alternative title
Initial Visible and Mid-IR Characterization of P/2019 LD₂ (ATLAS), an Active Transitioning Centaur Among the Trojans, with Hubble, Spitzer, ZTF, Keck, APO and GROWTH Imaging and Spectroscopy
Alternative title
Initial Visible and Mid-IR Characterization of P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS), an Active Transitioning Centaur Among the Trojans, with Hubble, Spitzer, ZTF, Keck, APO and GROWTH Imaging and Spectroscopy
Alternative title
Initial Characterization of Active Transitioning Centaur, P/2019 LD₂ (ATLAS), using Hubble, Spitzer, ZTF, Keck, APO and GROWTH Visible & Infrared Imaging and Spectroscopy
Alternative title
Initial Characterization of Active Transitioning Centaur, P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS), using Hubble, Spitzer, ZTF, Keck, APO and GROWTH Visible & Infrared Imaging and Spectroscopy
Alternative title
Initial Characterization of Active Transitioning Centaur, P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS), Using Hubble, Spitzer, ZTF, Keck, Apache Point Observatory, and GROWTH Visible and Infrared Imaging and Spectroscopy

Identifiers

Eprint ID
106895
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20201203-151011869

Related works

Describes
https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.03782 (URL)

Funding

NASA
NAS5-26555
NASA/JPL/Caltech
NSF
AST-1440341
ZTF partner institutions
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
NSF
OISE-1545949
W. M. Keck Foundation
NASA
80NSSC19K0780
Heising-Simons Foundation
2018-0907
NSF
PHY-2010970
Ministry of Science and Technology (Taipei)
108-2112-M-008-001
Ministry of Science and Technology (Taipei)
104-2923-M-008-004-MY5
Gaia Multilateral Agreement

Dates

Created
2020-12-05
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-16
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Astronomy Department, Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), Zwicky Transient Facility