A Population of Comets in the Main Asteroid Belt

@article{Hsieh2006APO,
  title={A Population of Comets in the Main Asteroid Belt},
  author={Henry H. Hsieh and David C. Jewitt},
  journal={Science},
  year={2006},
  volume={312},
  pages={561 - 563}
}
Comets are icy bodies that sublimate and become active when close to the Sun. They are believed to originate in two cold reservoirs beyond the orbit of Neptune: the Kuiper Belt (equilibrium temperatures of ∼40 kelvin) and the Oort Cloud (∼10 kelvin). We present optical data showing the existence of a population of comets originating in a third reservoir: the main asteroid belt. The main-belt comets are unlike the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud comets in that they likely formed where they currently… 
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2.13 – Comets
Main-belt comets: sublimation-driven activity in the asteroid belt
  • H. Hsieh
  • Physics, Geology
    Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
  • 2015
Abstract Our knowledge of main-belt comets (MBCs), which exhibit comet-like activity likely due to the sublimation of volatile ices, yet orbit in the main asteroid belt, has increased greatly since…
Main-Belt Comets as Tracers of Ice in the Inner Solar System
  • H. Hsieh
  • Physics, Geology
    Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
  • 2012
Abstract As a recently recognized class of objects exhibiting apparently cometary (sublimation-driven) activity yet orbiting completely within the main asteroid belt, main-belt comets (MBCs) have…
Active Asteroids: Main-Belt Comets and Disrupted Asteroids
  • H. Hsieh
  • Physics, Geology
    Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
  • 2015
Abstract The study of active asteroids has attracted a great deal of interest in recent years since the recognition of main-belt comets (which orbit in the main asteroid belt, but exhibit comet-like…
The Asteroid–Comet Continuum: In Search of Lost Primitivity
Recent results from the Stardust comet sample-return mission have confirmed the idea that there is a continuum between primitive small bodies in the outer main asteroid belt and comets. Indeed, the…
Main Belt Comets: A new class of small bodies in the solar system
The Asteroid-Comet Continuum
The practical distinctions between asteroids and comets, viewed as products of accretion on either side of the snow line, are less clear-cut than previously understood. In this chapter, we discuss…
Newly Disrupted Main Belt Asteroid P/2010 A2
Most main-belt asteroids are primitive rock and metal bodies in orbit about the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. Disruption, through high velocity collisions or rotational spin-up, is believed to be the…
A recent disruption of the main-belt asteroid P/2010 A2
TLDR
Observations of P/2010 A2, a previously unknown inner-belt asteroid with a peculiar, comet-like morphology, are reported, concluding that it is most probably the remnant of a recent asteroidal disruption in February/March 2009, evolving slowly under the action of solar radiation pressure.
WATER-ICE-DRIVEN ACTIVITY ON MAIN-BELT COMET P/2010 A2 (LINEAR)?
The dust ejecta of Main-Belt Comet P/2010 A2 (LINEAR) have been observed with several telescopes at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos on La Palma, Spain. Application of an inverse dust tail…
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