Aging comets and their meteor showers

Comets are thought to be responsible for the terrestrial accretion of water and organic materials. Comets evolve very quickly, and will generally deplete their volatiles in a few hundred revolutions. This process, or the aging of comets, is one of the most critical yet poorly understood problems in planetary astronomy. The goal of this thesis is to better understand this problem by examining different parts of the cometary aging spectrum of Jupiter-family comets (JFCs), a group of comets that dominates the cometary influx in the near-Earth space, using both telescopic and meteor observations. We examine two representative JFCs and the population of dormant comets. At the younger end of the aging spectrum, we examine a moderately active JFC, 15P/Finlay, and review the puzzle of the non-detection of the associated Finlayid meteor shower. We find that, although having been behaving like a dying comet in the past several 10 2 years, 15P/Finlay have produced energetic cometary outbursts without a clear reason. Towards the more aged end of the spectrum, we examine a weakly active JFC, 209P/LINEAR. By bridging telescopic observations at visible and infrared wavelength, meteor observations and dynamical investigations, we find that 209P/LINEAR is indeed likely an aged yet long-lived comet. At the other end of the spectrum, we examine the population of dormant near-Earth comets, by conducting a comprehensive meteor-based survey looking for dormant comets that have recently been active. We find the lower limit of the dormant comet fraction in the near-Earth object (NEO) population to be 2.0 ± 1.7%. This number is at the lower end of the numbers found using dynamical and telescopic techniques, which may imply that a significant fraction of comets in the true JFC population are weakly active and are not yet detected. These results have revealed interesting diversity in dying or dead comets, both in their behavior as well as their nature. An immediate quest in the understanding of cometary aging would be to examine a large number of dying or dead comets and understand their general characteristics

Comets and meteor showers

Earth occasionally crosses the debris streams produced by comets and other active bodies in our solar system. These manifest meteor showers that provide an opportunity to explore these bodies without a need to visit them in-situ. Observations of meteor showers provide unique insights into the physical and dynamical properties of their parent bodies, as well as into the compositions and the structure of near-surface dust. In this chapter, we discuss the development and current state of affairs of meteor science, with a focus on its role as a tool to study comets, and review the established parent body -- meteor shower linkages.Comment: To appear in Comets II

Rising from Ashes or Dying Flash? The Mega Outburst of Small Comet 289P/Blanpain in 2013

Jupiter-family comet 289P/Blanpain was first discovered in 1819 and was then lost for ~200 years, only to be rediscovered in 2003 as a small, weakly active comet. The comet is associated with the Phoenicids, an otherwise minor meteor shower that produced significant outbursts in 1956 and 2014. The shower points to the existence of significant mass-loss events of P/Blanpain in recent history. P/Blanpain was recovered during an apparent large outburst in 2013 July at an appreciable heliocentric distance of 3.9 au, with brightness increase of 9 mag, making it one of the largest comet outbursts ever observed. Here we present an analysis of archival data taken by several telescopes. We find that the 2013 outburst has produced ~10^8 kg of dust, which accounts for a modest fraction (~1%) of the mass of P/Blanpain's nucleus as measured in 2004. Based on analysis of long-term light curve and modeling of coma morphology, we conclude that the 2013 outburst was most likely driven by the crystallization of amorphous water ice triggered by a spin-up disruption of the nucleus. A dust dynamical model shows that a small fraction of the dust ejecta will reach the Earth in 2036 and 2041, but are only expected to produce minor enhancements to the Phoenicid meteor shower. The 2013 outburst of P/Blanpain, though remarkable for a comet of small size, does not necessary imply a catastrophic disruption of the nucleus. The upcoming close encounter of P/Blanpain in 2020 January will provide an opportunity to examine the current state of the comet

Prediction of Meteor Activities from (101955) Bennu

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, currently orbiting near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu, has detected dust emission from the asteroid (Lauretta et al. 2019). Dust emissions from near-Earth asteroids and comets are responsible for most meteor activities at the Earth. Bennu has a Minimum Orbital Intersection Distance of only 0.003 au, comparable to many meteor shower parents. Here we present a preliminary calculation of the encounters between the recent ejecta from Bennu and the Earth

Asteroid (3200) Phaethon: colors, phase curve, limits on cometary activity and fragmentation

We report on a multi-observatory campaign to examine asteroid 3200 Phaethon during its December 2017 close approach to Earth, in order to improve our measurements of its fundamental parameters, and to search for surface variations, cometary activity and fragmentation. The mean colors of Phaethon are B-V = 0.702 +/- 0.004, V-R = 0.309 +/- 0.003, R-I = 0.266 +/- 0.004, neutral to slightly blue, consistent with previous classifications of Phaethon as a F-type or B-type asteroid. Variations in Phaethon's B-V colors (but not V-R or R-I) with observer sub-latitude are seen and may be associated with craters observed by the Arecibo radar. High cadence photometry over phases from 20 to 100 degrees allows a fit to the values of the HG photometric parameters; H = 14.57 +/- 0.02, 13.63 +/- 0.02, 13.28 +/- 0.02, 13.07 +/- 0.02; G = 0.00 +/- 0.01, -0.09 +/- 0.01, -0.10 +/- 0.01, -0.08 +/- 0.01 in the BVRI filters respectively; the negative G values are consistent with other observations of F type asteroids. Light curve variations were seen that are also consistent with concavities reported by Arecibo, indicative of large craters on Phaethon's surface whose ejecta may be the source of the Geminid meteoroid stream. A search for gas/dust production set an upper limit of 0.06 +/- 0.02 kg/s when Phaethon was 1.449 AU from the Sun, and 0.2 +/- 0.1 kg/s at 1.067 AU. A search for meter-class fragments accompanying Phaethon did not find any whose on-sky motion was not also consistent with background main belt asteroids.Comment: Accepted by the Astronomical Journal, 15 pages, 8 figures, 1 animated figur

Rising from Ashes or Dying Flash? The Mega Outburst of Small Comet 289P/Blanpain in 2013

Jupiter-family comet 289P/Blanpain was first discovered in 1819 and was then lost for ~200 years, only to be rediscovered in 2003 as a small, weakly active comet. The comet is associated with the Phoenicids, an otherwise minor meteor shower that produced significant outbursts in 1956 and 2014. The shower points to the existence of significant mass-loss events of P/Blanpain in recent history. P/Blanpain was recovered during an apparent large outburst in 2013 July at an appreciable heliocentric distance of 3.9 au, with brightness increase of 9 mag, making it one of the largest comet outbursts ever observed. Here we present an analysis of archival data taken by several telescopes. We find that the 2013 outburst has produced ~10^8 kg of dust, which accounts for a modest fraction (~1%) of the mass of P/Blanpain's nucleus as measured in 2004. Based on analysis of long-term light curve and modeling of coma morphology, we conclude that the 2013 outburst was most likely driven by the crystallization of amorphous water ice triggered by a spin-up disruption of the nucleus. A dust dynamical model shows that a small fraction of the dust ejecta will reach the Earth in 2036 and 2041, but are only expected to produce minor enhancements to the Phoenicid meteor shower. The 2013 outburst of P/Blanpain, though remarkable for a comet of small size, does not necessary imply a catastrophic disruption of the nucleus. The upcoming close encounter of P/Blanpain in 2020 January will provide an opportunity to examine the current state of the comet