Photometry of active Centaurs: Colors of dormant active Centaur nuclei

Abstract

We present multiband photometric observations of nine Centaurs. Five of the targets are known active Centaurs (167P/CINEOS, 174P/Echeclus, P/2008 CL94, P/2011 S1, and C/2012 Q1), and the other four are inactive Centaurs belonging to the redder of the two known color subpopulations (83982 Crantor, 121725 Aphidas, 250112 2002 KY14, and 281371 2008 FC76). We measure the optical colors of eight targets and carry out a search for cometary activity. In addition to the four inactive Centaurs, three of the five active Centaurs showed no signs of activity at the time of observation, yielding the first published color measurements of the bare nuclei of 167P and P/2008 CL94 without possible coma contamination. Activity was detected on P/2011 S1 and C/2012 Q1, yielding relatively high estimated mass loss rates of $140\pm 20$ and $250\pm 40$ kg/s, respectively. The colors of the dormant nuclei are consistent with the previously-published colors, indicating that any effect of non-geometric scattering from Centaur dust or blanketing debris on the measured colors is minimal. The results of our observations are discussed in the context of the cause of Centaur activity and the color distributions of active and inactive Centaurs. We suggest that the relative paucity of red Centaurs with low-perihelion orbits may not be directly due to the blanketing of the surface by unweathered particulates, but could instead be a result of the higher levels of thermal processing on low-perihelion Centaurs in general.

13 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in AJ

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