Abstract
As a new class of comet, main belt comets (MBCs) have attracted more and more attention in recent years. To study activity and physical properties of three MBCs 176P/LINEAR, 238P/Read and 288P/(300163) 2006 VW139, we carried out broadband CCD photometry of three MBCs on UT 2016 November 18–19 with the 1-m optical telescope at Lulin Observatory in Taiwan. By comparing cometary surface brightness profiles to stellar surface brightness profiles, and by comparing cometary absolute magnitude to the expected magnitude of inactive nucleus, we found that 176P/LINEAR was inactive, while 238P/Read and 288P/(300163) 2006 VW139 were active. By photometric studies, we obtained the Afρ values and the dust production rates. Finally, the activity of three MBCs were discussed. Our photometric results show that the total dust mass of 238P/Read and 288P/(300163) 2006 VW139 obtained in this work are of the same magnitude as the majority of known MBCs.
Highlights
Comets are small bodies in solar system, they are distinguished from asteroids by the presence of coma or tail
We present optical observations and the surface brightness profile (SBP) of the above three main belt comets (MBCs) observed on November 18–19, 2016
To search possible the extent of coma, we extracted surface brightness profiles (SBPs) of comets and stars from the combined image using the method described in Shi & Ma28
Summary
Comets are small bodies in solar system, they are distinguished from asteroids by the presence of coma or tail. The activity of comets are driven by water ice or sublimation of volatile admixtures. MBCs have attracted most attention in recent years due to the implication from their activity that the existence of present-day ice in the asteroid belt This offers opportunities to better understand the thermal and compositional history of our solar system, and place constraints on protosolar disk models. 176P/LINEAR (hereafter 176P), known as asteroid 118401, was discovered on September 7, 1999 by LINEAR telescope in Socorro, New Mexico It is the third discovered member of the MBCs. It was discovered to exhibit cometary nature on 2005 November 26 by the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii[18], but it was not exhibit activity during its 2011 perihelion passage, this casts doubt on the sublimation-driven nature of www.nature.com/scientificreports/. Hsieh et al.[20] examined the pole orientation and active region of 176P and suggested that the comet was active due to a seasonal variation of the solar flux at the active area
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