arXiv subjects

Masateru Ishiguro

Publications and source records attributed to Masateru Ishiguro.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Dust from Comet 209P/LINEAR during its 2014 Return: Parent Body of a New Meteor Shower, the May Camelopardalids

We report a new observation of the Jupiter-family comet 209P/LINEAR during its 2014 return. The comet is recognized as a dust source of a new meteor shower, the May Camelopardalids. 209P/LINEAR was apparently inactive at a heliocentric distance rh = 1.6 au and showed weak activity at rh < 1.4 au. We found an active region of <0.001% of the entire nuclear surface during the comet's dormant phase. An edge-on image suggests that particles up to 1 cm in size (with an uncertainty of factor 3-5) were ejected following a differential power-law size distribution with index q=-3.25+-0.10. We derived a mass loss rate of 2-10 kg/s during the active phase and a total mass of ~5x10^7 kg during the 2014 return. The ejection terminal velocity of millimeter- to centimeter-sized particles was 1-4 m/s, which is comparable to the escape velocity from the nucleus (1.4 m/s). These results imply that such large meteoric particles marginally escaped from the highly dormant comet nucleus via the gas drag force only within a few months of the perihelion passage.

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arXiv2014

Search for the Return of Activity in Active Asteroid 176P/LINEAR

We present the results of a search for the reactivation of active asteroid 176P/LINEAR during its 2011 perihelion passage using deep optical observations obtained before, during, and after that perihelion passage. Deep composite images of 176P constructed from data obtained between June 2011 and December 2011 show no visible signs of activity, while photometric measurements of the object during this period also show no significant brightness enhancements similar to that observed for 176P between November 2005 and December 2005 when it was previously observed to be active. An azimuthal search for dust emission likewise reveals no evidence for directed emission (i.e., a tail, as was previously observed for 176P), while a one-dimensional surface brightness profile analysis shows no indication of a spherically symmetric coma at any time in 2011. We conclude that 176P did not in fact exhibit activity in 2011, at least not on the level on which it exhibited activity in 2005, and suggest that this could be due to the devolatization or mantling of the active site responsible for its activity in 2005.

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arXiv2014

Optical Properties of (162173) 1999 JU3: In Preparation for the JAXA Hayabusa 2 Sample Return Mission

We investigated the magnitude-phase relation of (162173) 1999 JU3, a target asteroid for the JAXA Hayabusa 2 sample return mission. We initially employed the international Astronomical Union's H-G formalism but found that it fits less well using a single set of parameters. To improve the inadequate fit, we employed two photometric functions, the Shevchenko and Hapke functions. With the Shevchenko function, we found that the magnitude-phase relation exhibits linear behavior in a wide phase angle range (alpha = 5-75 deg) and shows weak nonlinear opposition brightening at alpha< 5 deg, providing a more reliable absolute magnitude of Hv = 19.25 +- 0.03. The phase slope (0.039 +- 0.001 mag/deg) and opposition effect amplitude (parameterized by the ratio of intensity at alpha=0.3 deg to that at alpha=5 deg, I(0.3)/I(5)=1.31+-0.05) are consistent with those of typical C-type asteroids. We also attempted to determine the parameters for the Hapke model, which are applicable for constructing the surface reflectance map with the Hayabusa 2 onboard cameras. Although we could not constrain the full set of Hapke parameters, we obtained possible values, w=0.041, g=-0.38, B0=1.43, and h=0.050, assuming a surface roughness parameter theta=20 deg. By combining our photometric study with a thermal model of the asteroid (Mueller et al. in preparation), we obtained a geometric albedo of pv = 0.047 +- 0.003, phase integral q = 0.32 +- 0.03, and Bond albedo AB = 0.014 +- 0.002, which are commensurate with the values for common C-type asteroids.

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arXiv2014

The Opposition Effect of the Asteroid 4 Vesta

We present the results of photometric observations carried out with four small telescopes of the asteroid 4 Vesta in the $B$, $R_{\rm C}$, and $z'$ bands at a minimum phase angle of 0.1 $\timeform{D}$. The magnitudes, reduced to unit distance and zero phase angle, were $M_{B}(1, 1, 0) = 3.83 \pm 0.01, M_{R_{\rm C}}(1, 1, 0) = 2.67 \pm 0.01$, and $M_{z'}(1, 1, 0) = 3.03 \pm 0.01$ mag. The absolute magnitude obtained from the IAU $H$--$G$ function is $\sim$0.1 mag darker than the magnitude at a phase angle of 0$\timeform{D}$ determined from the Shevchenko function and Hapke models with the coherent backscattering effect term. Our photometric measurements allowed us to derive geometric albedos of 0.35 in the $B$ band, 0.41 in the $R_{\rm C}$ band, and 0.31 in the $z'$ bands by using the Hapke model with the coherent backscattering effect term. Using the Hapke model, the porosity of the optically active regolith on Vesta was estimated to be $ρ$ = 0.4--0.7, yielding the bluk density of 0.9--2.0 $\times$ $10^3$ kg $\mathrm{m^{-3}}$. It is evident that the opposition effect for Vesta makes a contribution to not only the shadow-hiding effect, but also the coherent backscattering effect that appears from ca. $1\timeform{D}$. The amplitude of the coherent backscatter opposition effect for Vesta increases with a brightening of reflectance. By comparison with other solar system bodies, we suggest that multiple-scattering on an optically active scale may contribute to the amplitude of the coherent backscatter opposition effect ($B_{C0}$).

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arXiv2014

UKIRT Widefield Infrared Survey for Fe$^+$

The United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) Widefield Infrared Survey for Fe$^+$ (UWIFE) is a 180 deg$^2$ imaging survey of the first Galactic quadrant (7$^{\circ}$ < l < 62$^{\circ}$; |b| < 1.5$^{\circ}$) using a narrow-band filter centered on the [Fe II] 1.644 μm emission line. The [Fe II] 1.644 μm emission is a good tracer of dense, shock-excited gas, and the survey will probe violent environments around stars: star-forming regions, evolved stars, and supernova remnants, among others. The UWIFE survey is designed to complement the existing UKIRT Widefield Infrared Survey for H2 (UWISH2; Froebrich et al. 2011). The survey will also complement existing broad-band surveys. The observed images have a nominal 5σ detection limit of 18.7 mag for point sources, with the median seeing of 0.83". For extended sources, we estimate surface brightness limit of 8.1 x 10$^{-20}$ W m$^{-2}$ arcsec$^{-2}$ . In this paper, we present the overview and preliminary results of this survey.

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arXiv2014

Physical Properties of Asteroids in Comet-like Orbits in Infrared Asteroid Survey Catalogs

We investigated the population of asteroids in comet-like orbits using available asteroid size and albedo catalogs of data taken with the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, AKARI, and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer on the basis of their orbital properties (i.e., the Tisserand parameter with respect to Jupiter, TJ, and the aphelion distance, Q). We found that (i) there are 123 asteroids in comet-like orbits by our criteria (i.e., Q < 4.5 AU and TJ < 3), (ii) 80% of them have low albedo, pv < 0.1, consistent with comet nuclei, (iii) low-albedo objects among them have a size distribution shallower than that of active comet nuclei, that is, the power index of the cumulative size distribution of around 1.1, (iv) unexpectedly, a considerable number (i.e., 25 by our criteria) of asteroids in comet-like orbits have high albedo, pv > 0.1. We noticed that such high-albedo objects mostly consist of small (D < 3 km) bodies distributed in near-Earth space (with perihelion distance of q < 1.3 AU). We suggest that such high-albedo, small objects were susceptible to the Yarkovsky effect and drifted into comet-like orbits via chaotic resonances with planets.

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arXiv2014

Outbursting Comet P/2010 V1 (Ikeya-Murakami): A Miniature Comet Holmes

Short-period comet P/2010 V1 (Ikeya-Murakami, hereafter V1) was discovered visually by two amateur astronomers. The appearance of the comet was peculiar, consisting of an envelope, a spherical coma near the nucleus and a tail extending in the anti-solar direction. We investigated the brightness and the morphological development of the comet by taking optical images with ground-based telescopes. Our observations show that V1 experienced a large-scale explosion between UT 2010 October 31 and November 3. The color of the comet was consistent with the Sun (g'-RC=0.61+-0.20, RC-IC=0.20+-0.20, and B-RC=0.93+-0.25), suggesting that dust particles were responsible for the brightening. We used a dynamical model to understand the peculiar morphology, and found that the envelope consisted of small grains (0.3-1 micron) expanding at a maximum speed of 500+-40 m/s, while the tail and coma were composed of a wider range of dust particle sizes (0.4-570 micron) and expansion speeds 7-390 m/s. The total mass of ejecta is ~5x10^8 kg and kinetic energy ~5x10^12 J. These values are much smaller than in the historic outburst of 17P/Holmes in 2007, but the energy per unit mass (1x10^4 J/kg) is comparable. The energy per unit mass is about 10% of the energy released during the crystallization of amorphous water ice suggesting that crystallization of buried amorphous ice can supply the mass and energy of the outburst ejecta.

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arXiv2014

A Comparative Study of Infrared Asteroid Surveys: IRAS, AKARI, and WISE

We present a comparative study of three infrared asteroid surveys based on the size and albedo data from the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), the Japanese infrared satellite AKARI, and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). Our study showed that: (i) the total number of asteroids detected with diameter and albedo information with these three surveyors is 138,285, which is largely contributed by WISE; (ii) the diameters and albedos measured by the three surveyors for 1,993 commonly detected asteroids are in good agreement, and within +/-10% in diameter and +/-22% in albedo at 1sigma deviation level. It is true that WISE offers size and albedo of a large fraction (>20%) of known asteroids down to a few km bodies, but we would suggest that the IRAS and AKARI catalogs compensate for larger asteroids up to several hundred km, especially in the main belt region. We discuss the complementarity of these three catalogs in order to facilitate the use of these data sets for characterizing the physical properties of minor planets.

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arXiv2014

Hubble Space Telescope Investigation of Main-Belt Comet 133P/Elst-Pizarro

We report new observations of the prototype main-belt comet (active asteroid) 133P/Elst-Pizarro taken at high angular resolution using the Hubble Space Telescope. The object has three main components; a) a point-like nucleus, b) a long, narrow antisolar dust tail and c) a short, sunward anti-tail. There is no resolved coma. The nucleus has a mean absolute magnitude H_V = 15.70+/-0.10 and a lightcurve range 0.42 mag., the latter corresponding to projected dimensions 3.6 x 5.4 km (axis ratio 1.5:1), at the previously measured geometric albedo of 0.05+/-0.02. We explored a range of continuous and impulsive emission models to simultaneously fit the measured surface brightness profile, width and position angle of the antisolar tail. Preferred fits invoke protracted emission, over a period of 150 days or less, of dust grains following a differential power-law size distribution with index 3.25 < q < 3.5 and having a wide range of sizes. Ultra-low surface brightness dust projected in the sunward direction is a remnant from emission activity occurring in previous orbits, and consists of the largest (>cm-sized) particles. Ejection velocities of one micron-sized particles are comparable to the ~1.8 m/s gravitational escape speed of the nucleus, while larger particles are released at speeds less than the gravitational escape velocity. The observations are consistent with, but do not prove, a hybrid hypothesis in which mass loss is driven by gas drag from the sublimation of near-surface water ice, but escape is aided by centripetal acceleration from the rotation of the elongated nucleus. No plausible alternative hypothesis has been identified.

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arXiv2014

Scattered Light Correction of HAYABUSA/AMICA Data and Quantitative Spectral Comparisons of Itokawa

The Hayabusa spacecraft rendezvoused with its target asteroid 25143 Itokawa in 2005 and brought an asteroidal sample back to the Earth in 2010. The onboard camera, AMICA, took more than 1400 images of Itokawa during the rendezvous phase. It was reported that the AMICA images were severely contaminated by light scatter inside the optics. The effect made it difficult to produce the color maps at longer wavelengths (>800 nm). In this paper, we demonstrate a method to subtract the scattered light by investigating the dim halos of Itokawa and the Moon taken by AMICA during the inflight operation. As the result, we found that the overall data reduction scheme including the scattered light correction enables to recognize ~3% regional differences in the relative reflectance spectra of Itokawa. We confirmed that the color variation in Itokawa was largely attributed to space weathering.

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arXiv2013

Lightcurve Survey of V-type Asteroids in the Inner Asteroid Belt

We have observed the lightcurves of 13 V-type asteroids ((1933) Tinchen, (2011) Veteraniya, (2508) Alupka, (3657) Ermolova, (3900) Knezevic, (4005) Dyagilev, (4383) Suruga, (4434) Nikulin, (4796) Lewis, (6331) 1992 $\mathrm{FZ_{1}}$, (8645) 1998 TN, (10285) Renemichelsen, and (10320) Reiland). Using these observations we determined the rotational rates of the asteroids, with the exception of Nikulin and Renemichelsen. The distribution of rotational rates of 59 V-type asteroids in the inner main belt, including 29 members of the Vesta family that are regarded as ejecta from the asteroid (4) Vesta, is inconsistent with the best-fit Maxwellian distribution. This inconsistency may be due to the effect of thermal radiation Yarkovsky--O'Keefe--Radzievskii--Paddack (YORP) torques, and implies that the collision event that formed V-type asteroids is sub-billion to several billion years in age.

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arXiv2013

17P/Holmes: Contrast in activity between before and after the 2007 outburst

A Jupiter-family comet, 17P/Holmes, underwent outbursts in 1892 and 2007. In particular, the 2007 outburst is known as the greatest outburst over the past century. However, little is known about the activity before the outburst because it was unpredicted. In addition, the time evolution of the nuclear physical status has not been systematically studied. Here we study the activity of 17P/Holmes before and after the 2007 outburst through optical and mid-infrared observations. We found that the nucleus highly depleted its near-surface icy component before but became activated after the 2007 outburst. Assuming a conventional 1-um-sized grain model, we derived a surface fractional active area of 0.58% +- 0.14% before the outburst whereas it was enlarged by a factor of ~50 after the 2007 outburst. We also found that large (>=1 mm) particles could be dominant in the dust tail observed around aphelion. Based on the size of the particles, the dust production rate was >=170 kg/s at the heliocentric distance rh = 4.1 AU, suggesting that the nucleus still held active status around the aphelion passage. The nucleus color was similar to that of the dust particles and average for a Jupiter-family comet but different from most Kuiper Belt objects, implying that the color may be inherent to icy bodies in the solar system. On the basis of these results, we concluded that more than 76 m surface materials were blown off by the 2007 outburst.

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arXiv2013

High-resolution Imaging of the Gegenschein and the Geometric Albedo of Interplanetary Dust

We made optical observations of the Gegenschein using a liquid-nitrogen-cooled wide-field camera, Wide-field Imager of Zodiacal light with ARray Detector (WIZARD), between March 2003 and November 2006. We found a narrow brightness enhancement superimposed on the smooth gradient of the Gegenschein at the exact position of the antisolar point. Whereas the Gegenschein morphology changed according to the orbital motion of the Earth, the maximum brightness coincided with the antisolar direction throughout the year. We compared the observed morphology of the Gegenschein with those of models in which the spatial density of the interplanetary dust cloud was considered and found that the volume scattering phase function had a narrow backscattering enhancement. The morphology was reproducible with a spatial distribution model for infrared zodiacal emission. It is likely that the zero-phase peak (the so-called opposition effect) was caused by coherent backscattering and/or shadow-hiding effects on the rough surfaces of individual dust particles. These results suggest that big particles are responsible for both zodiacal light and zodiacal emission. Finally, we derived the geometric albedo of the smooth component of interplanetary dust, assuming big particles, and obtained a geometric albedo of 0.06+-0.01. The derived albedo is in accordance with collected dark micrometeorites and observed cometary dust particles. We concluded that chondritic particles are dominant near Earth space, supporting the recent theoretical study by dynamical simulation.

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arXiv2013

Large Particles in Active Asteroid P/2010 A2

Previously unknown asteroid P/2010 A2 rose to prominence in 2010 by forming a transient, comet-like tail consisting of ejected dust. The observed dust production was interpreted as either the result of a hypervelocity impact with a smaller body or of a rotational disruption. We have re-observed this object, finding that large particles remain a full orbital period after the initial outburst. In the intervening years, particles smaller than ~3 mm in radius have been dispersed by radiation pressure, leaving only larger particles in the trail. Since the total mass is dominated by the largest particles, the radiation pressure filtering allows us to obtain a more reliable estimate of the debris mass than was previously possible. We find that the mass contained in the debris is ~5x10^8 kg (assumed density 3000 kg m^-3), the ratio of the total debris mass to the nucleus mass is ~0.1 and that events like P/2010 A2 contribute <3% to the Zodiacal dust production rate. Physical properties of the nucleus and debris are also determined.

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arXiv2012

Albedo Properties of Main Belt Asteroids Based on the Infrared All-Sky Survey of the Astronomical Satellite AKARI

We present an analysis of the albedo properties of main belt asteroids detected by the All-Sky Survey of the infrared satellite AKARI. The characteristics of 5120 asteroids detected by the survey, including their sizes and albedos, were cataloged in the Asteroid Catalog Using AKARI (AcuA). Size and albedo measurements were based on the Standard Thermal Model, using inputs of infrared fluxes and absolute magnitudes. Main belt asteroids, which account for 4722 of the 5120 AcuA asteroids, have semimajor axes of 2.06 to 3.27 AU. AcuA provides a complete data set of all main belt asteroids brighter than the absolute magnitude of H < 10.3, which corresponds to the diameter of d > 20 km. We confirmed that the albedo distribution of the main belt asteroids is strongly bimodal as was already known from the past observations, and that the bimodal distribution occurs not only in the total population, but also within inner, middle, and outer regions of the main belt. We found that the small asteroids have much more variety in albedo than the large asteroids. In spite of the albedo transition process like space weathering, the heliocentric distribution of the mean albedo of asteroids in each taxonomic type is nearly flat. The mean albedo of the total, on the other hand, gradually decreases with an increase in semimajor axis. This can be explained by the compositional ratio of taxonomic types; that is, the proportion of dark asteroids such as C- and D-types increases, while that of bright asteroids such as S-type decreases, with increasing heliocentric distance. The heliocentric distributions of X-subclasses: E-, M-, and P-type, which can be divided based on albedo values, are also examined. P-type, which is the major component in X-types, are distributed throughout the main belt regions, and the abundance of P-type increases beyond 3 AU. This distribution is similar to that of C- or D-types.

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arXiv2012

Multiband Optical Observation of P/2010 A2 Dust Tail

An inner main-belt asteroid, P/2010 A2, was discovered on January 6th, 2010. Based on its orbital elements, it is considered that the asteroid belongs to the Flora collisional family, where S-type asteroids are common, whilst showing a comet-like dust tail. Although analysis of images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and Rosetta spacecraft suggested that the dust tail resulted from a recent head-on collision between asteroids (Jewitt et al. 2010; Snodgrass et al. 2010), an alternative idea of ice sublimation was suggested based on the morphological fitting of ground-based images (Moreno et al. 2010). Here, we report a multiband observation of P/2010 A2 made on January 2010 with a 105 cm telescope at the Ishigakijima Astronomical Observatory. Three broadband filters, $g'$, $R_c$, and $I_c$, were employed for the observation. The unique multiband data reveals that the reflectance spectrum of the P/2010 A2 dust tail resembles that of an Sq-type asteroid or that of ordinary chondrites rather than that of an S-type asteroid. Due to the large error of the measurement, the reflectance spectrum also resembles the spectra of C-type asteroids, even though C-type asteroids are uncommon in the Flora family. The reflectances relative to the $g'$-band (470 nm) are 1.096$\pm$0.046 at the $R_c$-band (650 nm) and 1.131$\pm$0.061 at the $I_c$-band (800 nm). We hypothesize that the parent body of P/2010 A2 was originally S-type but was then shattered upon collision into scaterring fresh chondritic particles from the interior, thus forming the dust tail.

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arXiv2011

Interpretation of (596) Scheila's Triple Dust Tails

Strange-looking dust cloud around asteroid (596) Scheila was discovered on 2010 December 11.44-11.47. Unlike normal cometary tails, it consisted of three tails and faded within two months. We constructed a model to reproduce the morphology of the dust cloud based on the laboratory measurement of high velocity impacts and the dust dynamics. As the result, we succeeded in the reproduction of peculiar dust cloud by an impact-driven ejecta plume consisting of an impact cone and downrange plume. Assuming an impact angle of 45 deg, our model suggests that a decameter-sized asteroid collided with (596) Scheila from the direction of (alpha, delta) = (60deg, -40deg) in J2000 coordinates on 2010 December 3. The maximum ejection velocity of the dust particles exceeded 100 m/s. Our results suggest that the surface of (596) Scheila consists of materials with low tensile strength.

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arXiv2011

Photometric Observations of 107P/Wilson-Harrington

We present lightcurve observations and multiband photometry for 107P/Wilson-Harrington using five small- and medium-sized telescopes. The lightcurve has shown a periodicity of 0.2979 day (7.15 hour) and 0.0993 day (2.38 hour), which has a commensurability of 3:1. The physical properties of the lightcurve indicate two models: (1) 107P/Wilson-Harrington is a tumbling object with a sidereal rotation period of 0.2979 day and a precession period of 0.0993 day. The shape has a long axis mode (LAM) of L1:L2:L3 = 1.0:1.0:1.6. The direction of the total rotational angular momentum is around λ = 310°, β = -10°, or λ = 132°, β = -17°. The nutation angle is approximately constant at 65°. (2) 107P/Wilson-Harrington is not a tumbler. The sidereal rotation period is 0.2979 day. The shape is nearly spherical but slightly hexagonal with a short axis mode (SAM) of L1:L2:L3 = 1.5:1.5:1.0. The pole orientation is around λ = 330°, β = -27°. In addition, the model includes the possibility of binary hosting. For both models, the sense of rotation is retrograde. Furthermore, multiband photometry indicates that the taxonomy class of 107P/Wilson-Harrington is C-type. No clear rotational color variations are confirmed on the surface.

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