A Coma Search in Jovian Trojans
Abstract
The Jovian Trojans orbit far beyond the snow line and are widely believed to contain water ice. However, they have resisted all spectroscopic efforts to identify water ice, which must therefore be rare on their surfaces. Simple models show that water ice is thermodynamically unstable when exposed, but could survive indefinitely beneath a thin, refractory surface mantle. Water ice might be exposed on some objects by impact or by other processes capable of puncturing or disturbing the surface mantle. We will present wide field survey data taken using Subaru Telescope's Suprime-Cam in order to search for evidence of outgassing from Jovian Trojans.
- Publication:
-
AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts #44
- Pub Date:
- October 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012DPS....4430202N