8 papers
Multi-year Ground-Based Survey Photometry of Active Comet 103P/Hartley 2 and Centaur (2060) Chiron: A Tale of Two Comets in the Pre-LSST Era
Joseph Murtagh, Megan E. Schwamb, Michael S. P. Kelley +22
Comets and Centaurs trace the evolution of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) into the inner solar system. Their activity reflects the interplay between volatile sublimation, dust dyna…
A Look at Eight Outbursts of Comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke
Ky Huynh, Michael S. P. Kelley, Jessica M. Sunshine +6
Cometary outbursts may be used as a means to infer the physical processes occurring on cometary nuclei. To that end, we studied eight outbursts of comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke identified…
Disintegration of Long-period Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS). II. Post-Perihelion Remnant Recovery
Salvatore A. Cordova Quijano, Quanzhi Ye, Michael S. P. Kelley
We present an investigation into the fate of disrupting near-Sun comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS). Imaging observations with the Lowell Discovery Telescope (LDT), obtained 3--5 months after…
Discovery and Preliminary Characterization of a Third Interstellar Object: 3I/ATLAS
Darryl Z. Seligman, Marco Micheli, Davide Farnocchia +44
We report initial observations aimed at the characterization of a third interstellar object. This object, 3I/ATLAS or C/2025 N1 (ATLAS), was discovered on 2025 July 1 UT and has an…
A Large Outburst, Coma Asymmetries, and the Color of Comet 243P/NEAT
Michael S. P. Kelley, Silvia Protopapa, Dennis Bodewits +16
Water ice is a fundamental building material of comets and other bodies in the outer solar system. Yet, the properties of cometary water ice are challenging to study, due to its vo…
Deep learning to improve the discovery of near-Earth asteroids in the Zwicky Transient Facility
Belén Yu Irureta-Goyena, George Helou, Jean-Paul Kneib +7
We present a novel pipeline that uses a convolutional neural network (CNN) to improve the detection capability of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) in the context of planetary defense. O…