The dust environment of Main-Belt Comet P/2012 T1 (PANSTARRS)
Abstract
Main-Belt Comet (MBC) P/2012 T1 (PANSTARRS) has been imaged using the 10.4m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) and the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope (WHT) at six epochs in the period 2012 November through 2013 February. Using our dust tail Monte Carlo model we inferred that the object has experienced a continuous mass loss during an extended period of 4-6 months. The total ejected dust mass is estimated at ∼6-25×106 kg, depending on the maximum particle size ejected (1-10 cm). The observed dust tails are best interpreted with an anisotropic ejection model, the emission being concentrated in a high latitude region for an object whose rotation axis is located near the orbital plane pointing approximately to the perihelion point, and whose maximum activity occurs some 30 days post-perihelion. This seasonallydriven ejection behavior, along with the modeled particle ejection velocities, are in remarkable agreement to those we found for P/2010 R2 (La Sagra) [4].
- Publication:
-
European Planetary Science Congress
- Pub Date:
- September 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013EPSC....8..140M