Citizen Scientists Discover “Asteroid in a Cometary Orbit” 2010 MK<sub>43</sub> has a Comet Tail
Abstract We present the discovery of a short, diffuse tail on minor planet 2010 MK 43 (alternate designation 2010 RA 78 )—an object previously identified as an asteroid in a cometary orbit—by volunteers of our Citizen Science program Active Asteroids . Our follow-up investigation revealed eight Dark Energy Camera images showing 2010 MK 43 with a tail spanning UT 2024 February 12–UT 2024 February 18 when the object was outbound from perihelion. We now classify 2010 MK 43 as a Jupiter-family comet based on its Tisserand parameter with respect to Jupiter T J = 2.888, though our dynamical simulations reveal that, due to frequent close encounters with Jupiter, 2010 MK 43 was likely a quasi-Hilda within the last 10 kyr.
Authors
- Charles J. A. Dukes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9194-2361)
- Henry H. Hsieh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7225-9271)
- M. Mazzucato (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2204-6064)
- Milton K. D. Bosch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9766-2400)
- Jarod A. DeSpain (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7489-5893)
- Jay K. Kueny (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8531-038X)
- Al Lamperti
- Ivan A. Terentev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0654-4442)
- Kennedy A. Farrell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2521-848X)
- Chadwick A. Trujillo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9859-0894)
- Nima Sedaghat (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4734-2019)
- Scott S. Sheppard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3145-8682)
- Maxwell Frissell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8069-3139)
- Mark Jesus M. Magbanua (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2113-3593)
- Virgilio Gonano
- Tiffany Shaw-Diaz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7250-968X)
- William J. Oldroyd (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5750-4953)
- Colin Orion Chandler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7335-1715)
- William A. Burris (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6023-7291)
- José A. da Silva Campos
- Brian L. Goodwin
Publication Details
- Journal
- Research Notes of the AAS
- Published
- 2024-09-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2515-5172/ad7c50
- Primary Topic
- Astro and Planetary Science
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration