Nucleus of active asteroid 358P/Pan-STARRS (P/2012 T1)

Abstract

The dust emission from active asteroids is likely driven by collisions, fast rotation, sublimation of embedded ice, and combinations of these. Characterising these processes leads to a better understanding of their respective influence on the evolution of the asteroid population. We study the role of fast rotation in the active asteroid 358P (P 2012/T1). We obtained two nights of deep imaging of 358P with SOAR/Goodman and VLT/FORS2. We derived the rotational light curve from time-resolved photometry and searched for large fragments and debris > 8 mm in a stacked, ultra-deep image. The nucleus has an absolute magnitude of m_R=19.68, corresponding to a diameter of 530 m for standard assumptions on the albedo and phase function of a C-type asteroid. We do not detect fragments or debris that would require fast rotation to reduce surface gravity to facilitate their escape. The 10-hour light curve does not show an unambiguous periodicity.

7 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in A&A

References in corpus (13)

• The Pan-STARRS1 Surveys
• Volumes and bulk densities of forty asteroids from ADAM shape modeling
• PHOTOMETRYPIPELINE: An Automated Pipeline for Calibrated Photometry
• NEOWISE Reactivation Mission Year Two: Asteroid Diameters and Albedos
• Constraints on the Physical Properties of Main Belt Comet P/2013 R3 from its Breakup Event
• Sublimation-Driven Activity in Main-Belt Comet 313P/Gibbs
• Fast Rotation and Trailing Fragments of the Active Asteroid P/2012 F5 (Gibbs)
• A binary main belt comet
• Anisotropic Ejection from Active Asteroid P/2010 A2: An Implication of Impact Shattering on an Asteroid
• Triggering Sublimation-Driven Activity of Main Belt Comets
• New Active Asteroid 313P/Gibbs
• Triggering the Activation of Main Belt Comets: The Effect of Porosity
• X-shooter search for outgassing from Main Belt Comet P/2012 T1 (Pan-STARRS)