Discovery of Dust Emission Activity Emanating from Main-belt Asteroid 2015 FW412

Colin Orion Chandler; Chadwick A. Trujillo; William J. Oldroyd; Jay K. Kueny; William A. Burris; Henry H. Hsieh; Michele T. Mazzucato; Milton K. D. Bosch; Tiffany Shaw-Diaz

arXiv · 2302.07274

Discovery of Dust Emission Activity Emanating from Main-belt Asteroid 2015 FW412

Colin Orion Chandler·Chadwick A. Trujillo·William J. Oldroyd·Jay K. Kueny·William A. Burris·Henry H. Hsieh·Michele T. Mazzucato·Milton K. D. Bosch·Tiffany Shaw-Diaz

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Abstract

We present the discovery of activity emanating from main-belt asteroid 2015 FW412, a finding stemming from the Citizen Science project Active Asteroids, a NASA Partner program. We identified a pronounced tail originating from 2015 FW412 and oriented in the anti-motion direction in archival Blanco 4-m (Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile) Dark Energy Camera (DECam) images from UT 2015 April 13, 18, 19, 21 and 22. Activity occurred near perihelion, consistent with the main-belt comets (MBCs), an active asteroid subset known for sublimation-driven activity in the main asteroid belt; thus 2015 FW412 is a candidate MBC. We did not detect activity on UT 2021 December 12 using the Inamori-Magellan Areal Camera and Spectrograph (IMACS) on the 6.5 m Baade telescope, when 2015 FW412 was near aphelion.

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Colin Orion Chandler, Chadwick A. Trujillo, William J. Oldroyd, Jay K. Kueny, William A. Burris, Henry H. Hsieh, Michele T. Mazzucato, Milton K. D. Bosch, Tiffany Shaw-Diaz. 2023-02-14. Discovery of Dust Emission Activity Emanating from Main-belt Asteroid 2015 FW412. https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.07274

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