596 Scheila
596 Scheila outbursting as seen in a 5 min photo with a 24" telescope
|
|
| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | August Kopff Heidelberg (024) |
| Discovery date | 1906-Feb-21 |
| Designations | |
| MPC designation | 596 Scheila |
| Main-belt Asteroid[1] Main-belt comet[2] |
|
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch July 23, 2010 T_jup = 3.209 |
|
| Aphelion | 3.4103 AU (Q) |
| Perihelion | 2.4428 AU (q) |
| 2.9265 AU (a) | |
| Eccentricity | 0.16529 |
| 5.01 yr | |
| 228.81° (M) | |
| Inclination | 14.662° |
| 70.719° | |
| 175.95° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 113.34 km (IRAS)[1] |
| 60 m/s (2.0 g/cm3)[3] 75 m/s (2.5 g/cm3)[4] |
|
|
Sidereal rotation period
|
15.848 hr[1] |
| Albedo | 0.0379[1] |
| 11.67 to 15.32 | |
| 8.9[1] | |
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596 Scheila is a main-belt asteroid[1] and main-belt comet[2] orbiting the Sun. It was discovered on 21 February 1906 by August Kopff from Heidelberg.[1] Kopff named the asteroid after a female English student with whom he was acquainted.[5]
On December 11.4 2010, Steve Larson of the Catalina Sky Survey detected a comet-like appearance to asteroid Scheila: it displayed a "coma" of about magnitude 13.5.[6] Inspection of archival Catalina Sky Survey observations showed the activity was triggered between 2010 November 11 and December 3.[7] Imaging with the 2-meter Faulkes Telescope North revealed a linear tail in the anti-sunward direction and an orbital tail, indicative of larger slower particles.[8]
When first detected it was unknown what drove the ejecta plumes. Scheila's gravity is too large for electrostatics to launch dust.[2] Cometary outgassing could not be ruled out until detailed spectroscopic observations indicated the absence of gas in Scheila's plumes.[4] Observations by the Hubble Space Telescope and the Swift Gamma Ray Burst Mission's UV-optical telescope make it most likely that Scheila was impacted at ~5 km/s by a previously unknown asteroid ~35 meters in diameter.[3][4] In 2010, the Hubble Space Telescope observed the aftermath of a catastrophic collision that destroyed[dubious ] the much smaller asteroid P/2010 A2. Each asteroid the size of Scheila might be hit by an impactor 10–100 meters in diameter approximately every 1000 years, so with 200 asteroids of this size or bigger in the asteroid belt, we can observe a collision as often as every 5 years.[4]
Scheila last came to perihelion on 2012 May 19.[1]
See also
- 493 Griseldis (another possible asteroid collision, 2015)
References
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<references />, or <references group="..." />External links
- Orbital simulation from JPL (Java) / Ephemeris
- Comet-like appearance of (596) Scheila (Remanzacco Observatory)
- What's up with Scheila (596) (AARTScope Blog)
- Joseph Brimacombe animation on flckr
- (596) Scheila 2010-12-12 10:45:39UT (cbellh47 @ flckr)
- (596) Scheila by Rolando Ligustri (CAST-Italia)
- Comet-like appearance of (596) Scheila (MPML at Yahoo Groups)
- Asteroid 596 Scheila "Outburst" (Unmanned SpaceFlight)
- asteroid 596 Scheila goes cometary! (Cloudy Nights)
- UA Catalina Sky Survey Discovers Possible Extinct Comet (University of Arizona 2010 Dec 21)
- NASA's Swift and Hubble Probe Asteroid Collision Debris (04.28.11)
- Near Infrared Observations of Comet-Like Asteroid (596) Scheila (arXiv:1107.3845 : 19 Jul 2011)
- Interpretation of (596) Scheila's Triple Dust Tails (arXiv:1110.1150 : 6 Oct 2011)
- The cause of asteroid Scheila’s outburst (EPSC-DPS JOINT MEETING 2011 PRESS NOTICE)
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lutz D. Schmadel, Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, p. 61
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Richard Miles's posting on Yahoo minor planet mailing list (MPML)
