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A collision in 2009 as the origin of the debris trail of asteroid P/2010 A2

Nature volume 467, pages 814–816 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

The peculiar object P/2010 A2 was discovered1 in January 2010 and given a cometary designation because of the presence of a trail of material, although there was no central condensation or coma. The appearance of this object, in an asteroidal orbit (small eccentricity and inclination) in the inner main asteroid belt attracted attention as a potential new member of the recently recognized2 class of main-belt comets. If confirmed, this new object would expand the range in heliocentric distance over which main-belt comets are found. Here we report observations of P/2010 A2 by the Rosetta spacecraft. We conclude that the trail arose from a single event, rather than a period of cometary activity, in agreement with independent results3. The trail is made up of relatively large particles of millimetre to centimetre size that remain close to the parent asteroid. The shape of the trail can be explained by an initial impact ejecting large clumps of debris that disintegrated and dispersed almost immediately. We determine that this was an asteroid collision that occurred around 10 February 2009.

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Figure 1: Images of P/2010 A2 at four epochs.
Figure 2: Flux profiles along the trail.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Schulz and the Rosetta operations team for enabling these ‘target of opportunity’ observations to be performed. OSIRIS is funded by the national space agencies ASI, CNES, DLR, the Spanish Space Program (Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia), SNSB and the ESA. The ground-based observations were collected (in part) at the European Southern Observatory, Chile, under programmes 084.C-0594(A) and 185.C-1033(A).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Max-Planck-Strasse 2, 37191 Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany ,

    Colin Snodgrass, Cecilia Tubiana, Jean-Baptiste Vincent, Holger Sierks, Stubbe Hviid, Richard Moissl & Hermann Boehnhardt

  2. European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Córdova 3107, Casilla 19001, Santiago 19, Chile ,

    Colin Snodgrass

  3. Department of Astronomy, University of Padova, Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 3, 35122 Padova, Italy,

    Cesare Barbieri & Simone Marchi

  4. Research and Scientific Support Department, European Space Agency, Keplerlaan 1, Postbus 229, 2201 AZ Noordwijk ZH, The Netherlands,

    Detlef Koschny

  5. Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, UMR6110 CNRS/Université Aix-Marseille, 38 rue Frédéric Joliot-Curie, 13388 Marseille cedex 13, France ,

    Philippe Lamy

  6. Department of Astronomy and Space Physics, Uppsala University, Box 516, 75120 Uppsala, Sweden,

    Hans Rickman

  7. PAS Space Research Center, Bartycka 18A, 00-716 Warszawa, Poland ,

    Hans Rickman

  8. Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, CSIC, Box 3004, 18080 Granada, Spain ,

    Rafael Rodrigo

  9. LESIA, Observatoire de Paris—Meudon, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon cedex, France ,

    Benoît Carry

  10. Centre for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NH, UK

    Stephen C. Lowry & Ryan J. M. Laird

  11. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, MS 183-301, Pasadena, California 91101, USA ,

    Paul R. Weissman

  12. Astrophysics Research Centre, Queen’s University Belfast, BT7 1NN, UK

    Alan Fitzsimmons

  13. Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742-2421, USA

    M. A’Hearn

  14. Department of Mechanical Engineering—University of Padova, Via Venezia 1, 35131 Padova, Italy.,

    F. Angrilli & S. Debei

  15. LATMOS, CNRS/UVSQ/IPSL, 11 Boulevard d’Alembert, 78280 Guyancourt, France.,

    J.-L. Bertaux

  16. INAF—Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 5, 35122 Padova, Italy.,

    G. Cremonese

  17. CNR-IFN UOS Padova LUXOR, Via Trasea 7, 35131 Padova, Italy.,

    V. Da Deppo

  18. UNITN, Università di Trento, Via Mesiano 77, 38100 Trento, Italy.,

    M. De Cecco

  19. National Central University, Institute of Astronomy, 32054 Chung-Li, Taiwan.,

    W.-H. Ip

  20. Institut für Datentechnik und Kommunikationsnetze der TU Braunschweig, Hans-Sommer-Strasse 66, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany.,

    H. U. Keller & H. Michalik

  21. DLR Institute for Planetary Research, Rutherfordstrasse 2, 12489 Berlin, Germany.,

    J. Knollenberg & E. Kuehrt

  22. ESA-ESAC, Camino bajo del Castillo S/N, 28691 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain.,

    M. Kueppers

  23. Department of Physics—University of Padova, Via Marzolo 8, 35131 Padova, Italy.,

    F. Marzari

  24. Department of Information Engineering—University of Padova, Via Gradenigo, 6/B I, 35131 Padova, Italy.,

    G. Naletto

  25. Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial, Carretera de Ajalvir, p.k. 4, 28850 Torrejon de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain.,

    L. Sabau

  26. Abteilung Weltraumforschung und Planetologie, Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.,

    N. Thomas

Authors
  1. Colin Snodgrass
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  2. Cecilia Tubiana
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  3. Jean-Baptiste Vincent
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  4. Holger Sierks
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  5. Stubbe Hviid
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  6. Richard Moissl
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  7. Hermann Boehnhardt
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  8. Cesare Barbieri
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  9. Detlef Koschny
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  10. Philippe Lamy
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  12. Rafael Rodrigo
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  15. Ryan J. M. Laird
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  16. Paul R. Weissman
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  18. Simone Marchi
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Consortia

the OSIRIS team

  • M. A’Hearn
  • , F. Angrilli
  • , A. Barucci
  • , J.-L. Bertaux
  • , G. Cremonese
  • , V. Da Deppo
  • , B. Davidsson
  • , S. Debei
  • , M. De Cecco
  • , S. Fornasier
  • , P. Gutiérrez
  • , W.-H. Ip
  • , H. U. Keller
  • , J. Knollenberg
  • , J. R. Kramm
  • , E. Kuehrt
  • , M. Kueppers
  • , L. M. Lara
  • , M. Lazzarin
  • , J. J. López-Moreno
  • , F. Marzari
  • , H. Michalik
  • , G. Naletto
  • , L. Sabau
  • , N. Thomas
  •  & K.P. Wenzel

Contributions

C.S. and C.T. led this project and performed the data reduction and analysis, J.-B.V. did the modelling and led the interpretation, H.S., S.H. and R.M. were responsible for the planning and execution of the OSIRIS observations, H.B. contributed to the modelling and interpretation. C.B., D.K., P.L., H.R. and R.R. are the Lead Scientists of the OSIRIS project. The OSIRIS team built and run this instrument and made the observations possible. B.C., S.C.L., R.J.M.L., P.R.W. and A.F. were the observers who provided the ground-based observations. S.M. provided calculations of the collision probability.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Colin Snodgrass.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Material (observation details), additional references, Supplementary Table 1 and Supplementary Figures 1-6 with legends. (PDF 339 kb)

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Snodgrass, C., Tubiana, C., Vincent, JB. et al. A collision in 2009 as the origin of the debris trail of asteroid P/2010 A2. Nature 467, 814–816 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09453

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