Thermal Alteration and Differential Sublimation Can Create Phaethons "Rock Comet" Activity and Blue Color

Abstract

In 2010 Jewitt and Li published a paper examining the behavior of comet-asteroid transition object 3200 Phaethon, arguing it was asteroid-like in its behavior throughout most of its orbit, but that near its perihelion, at a distance of only 0.165 AU from the sun, its dayside temperatures would be hot enough to vaporize rock (>1000 K, Hanus et al. 2016). Thus it would act like a "rock comet" as gases produced from evaporating rock were released from the body, in a manner similar to the more familiar sublimation of water ice into vacuum seen for comets coming within ~3 AU of the Sun. In this Note we predict that the same thermal effects that would create "rock comet" behavior with Qgas ~ 10${}^{22}$ mol/sec at perihelion would also help greatly bluen Phaethon's surface via preferential thermal alteration and sublimative removal of surface Fe and refractory organics, known reddening and darkening agents. These predictions are testable by searching for signs of spectral bluening of the surfaces of other objects in Phaethon-like small perihelion orbits, and by in situ measurements of Phaethons surface and coma composition near perihelion with the upcoming DESTINY+ mission to Phaethon by JAXA.

arXiv comment14 Pages, 4 Figures, 1 Table, accepted for Publication by Icarus 17-Mar-2022 and updated 27-Mar-2022

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• Sodium Brightening of (3200) Phaethon Near Perihelion
• Thermal decomposition as an activity driver of near-Earth asteroid (3200) Phaethon
• Evidence of surface heterogeneity on active asteroid (3200) Phaethon
• A Deep and Wide Twilight Survey for Asteroids Interior to Earth and Venus
• Perihelion Activity of (3200) Phaethon Is Not Dusty: Evidence from STEREO/COR2 Observations
• Seasonally Varying Outgassing as an Explanation for Dark Comet Accelerations
• Characterizing the Daytime Sextantids Meteor Shower and Unveiling the Nature of the Phaethon-Geminid Stream Complex
• Resonant mechanisms that produce near-Sun asteroids
• Surface dynamics and geophysical environment of asteroid (3200) Phaethon
• Near-infrared spectroscopic characterization of the Pallas family