2,3,4,- 1Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA (gerbsb@umd.edu)
- 2Astronomical Institute Slovak Academy of Sciences, Department of Interplanetary Matter, Tatranská Lomnica, Slovak Republic
- 3Main Astronomical Observatory of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, The Laboratory for Physics of Minor Solar System Bodies, Kyiv, Ukraine
- 4Astronomical Observatory of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Department of astrometry and Solar system bodies, Kyiv, Ukraine
- 5Department of Physics and Astronomy, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608, USA
- 6SETI Institute, 339 Bernardo Avenue, Suite 200, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA
Centaurs, the population of small bodies that occupy the region of our solar system between the orbits of giant planets, are inextricably linked with the phenomenon of cometary activity, including as the direct source of short period comets [1]. The first recognized member of the Centaur population discovered was 95P/Chiron [2], and it was active [3] as discerned from the Centaur’s brightening after its discovery.
We provide a discussion and overview of Centaur activity, as presented in our chapter in the "Centaurs" book by IOP publishing [4]. This includes outbursts, comae, ejections, and disruptions, among other phenomena relating to morphology. The effects of such activity on Centaurs are analyzed in detail, offering insights into their dynamic behavior and evolutionary processes. We explore how these phenomena are observed and interpreted from Earth, providing a valuable perspective on the observational techniques and data analysis methods used in Centaur research. We will also update the material based on more recent observations and present recent studies on more distant activity in Centaurs by the authors [5].
[1] Horner, J., Evans, N. W., & Bailey, M. E. 2004, MNRAS, 354, 798.
[2] Kowal, C. T., Liller, W., & Chaisson, L. J. 1977, IAU Colloq., 3147, 1.
[3] Tholen, D. J., Hartmann, W. K., Cruikshank, D. P., et al. 1988, IAU Colloq., 4554, 2.
[4] Bauer, J., Ivanova, O., McKay, A., and Sarid, G. 2025. Activity, Outbursts and Explosions. in Centaurs, ed. by. Volk, K., Womack, M., and Steckloff, J. IOP Publishing.
[5] Bauer, J. M. et al. 2025. M.P.E.C. 2025-A144.
How to cite: Bauer, J., Ivanova, O., McKay, A., and Sarid, G.: Centaur Activity, Outbursts and Explosions , EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2025, Helsinki, Finland, 7–12 Sep 2025, EPSC-DPS2025-396, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc-dps2025-396, 2025.
