Dust from Comet 209P/LINEAR during its 2014 Return: Parent Body of a New Meteor Shower, the May Camelopardalids
arXiv:1412.3894 · doi:10.1088/2041-8205/798/2/L34
Abstract
We report a new observation of the Jupiter-family comet 209P/LINEAR during its 2014 return. The comet is recognized as a dust source of a new meteor shower, the May Camelopardalids. 209P/LINEAR was apparently inactive at a heliocentric distance rh = 1.6 au and showed weak activity at rh < 1.4 au. We found an active region of <0.001% of the entire nuclear surface during the comet's dormant phase. An edge-on image suggests that particles up to 1 cm in size (with an uncertainty of factor 3-5) were ejected following a differential power-law size distribution with index q=-3.25+-0.10. We derived a mass loss rate of 2-10 kg/s during the active phase and a total mass of ~5x10^7 kg during the 2014 return. The ejection terminal velocity of millimeter- to centimeter-sized particles was 1-4 m/s, which is comparable to the escape velocity from the nucleus (1.4 m/s). These results imply that such large meteoric particles marginally escaped from the highly dormant comet nucleus via the gas drag force only within a few months of the perihelion passage.
arXiv comment18 pages, 4 figures, accepted on 2014 December 11 for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters
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- Optical and Near-Infrared Polarimetry for a Highly Dormant Comet 209P/LINEAR
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