Re-activation of main-belt comet 288P in 2021
- 1TU Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
- 2University of California, Los Angeles, USA
- 3Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, USA
- 4The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, USA
- 5University of Arizona, Tucson, USA
The binary main-belt comet 288P is peculiar both because of its comet-like activity and because of its unusual system properties, combining near-equal component sizes with a wide separation of about 100 times the primary radius. The system likely formed by rotational disruption after YORP spin-up and subsequently widened, possibly by radiative or outgassing torques.
We present Hubble Space Telescope data obtained in 2021 while 288P re-approached perihelion and activity re-kindled. The data show a developing dust tail. We constrain the time of activity onset and investigate whether one or both components were active, which is key to understanding whether the splitting was the cause of the activity.
How to cite: Agarwal, J., Kim, Y., Jewitt, D., Mutchler, M., Weaver, H., and Larson, S.: Re-activation of main-belt comet 288P in 2021, Europlanet Science Congress 2022, Granada, Spain, 18–23 Sep 2022, EPSC2022-379, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2022-379, 2022.
