Publication: Constraining the orientation of the spin axes of extrasolar minor bodies 1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua) and 2I/Borisov
Loading...
Official URL
Full text at PDC
Publication Date
2020-11
Advisors (or tutors)
Editors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
EDPsciences
Abstract
Context. The orientation of the spin axis of a comet is defined by the values of its equatorial obliquity and its cometocentric longitude of the Sun at perihelion. These parameters can be computed from the components of the nongravitational force caused by outgassing if the cometary activity is well characterized. The trajectories of known interstellar bodies passing through the Solar System show nongravitational accelerations. Aims. The spin-axis orientation of 1I/2017 U1(‘Oumuamua) remains to be determined; for 2I/Borisov, the already released results are mutually exclusive. In both cases, the values of the components of the nongravitational force are relatively well constrained. Here, we investigate —within the framework of the forced precession model of a nonspherical cometary nucleus— the orientation of the spin axes of ‘Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov using public orbit determinations that consider outgassing. Methods. We applied a Monte Carlo simulation using the covariance matrix method together with Monte Carlo random search techniques to compute the distributions of equatorial obliquities and cometocentric longitudes of the Sun at perihelion of ‘Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov from the values of the nongravitational parameters. Results. We find that the equatorial obliquity of ‘Oumuamua could be about 93◦ , if it has a very prolate (fusiform) shape, or close to 16◦ , if it is very oblate (disk-like). Different orbit determinations of 2I/Borisov gave obliquity values of 59◦ and 90◦ . The distributions of cometocentric longitudes were in general multimodal. Conclusions. Our calculations suggest that the most probable spin-axis direction of ‘Oumuamua in equatorial coordinates is (280◦ , +46◦ ) if very prolate or (312◦ , −50◦ ) if very oblate. Our analysis favors a prolate shape. For the orbit determinations of 2I/Borisov used here, we find most probable poles pointing near (275◦ , +65◦ ) and (231◦ , +30◦ ), respectively. Although our analysis favors an oblate shape for 2I/Borisov, a prolate one cannot be ruled out.
Description
UCM subjects
Unesco subjects
Keywords
Citation
A’Hearn, M. F., Belton, M. J. S., Delamere, W. A., et al. 2011, Science, 332,1396
Amarante, A. & Winter, O. C. 2020, MNRAS, 496, 4154
Astropy Collaboration, Robitaille, T. P., Tollerud, E. J., et al. 2013, A&A, 558,A33
Astropy Collaboration, Price-Whelan, A. M., Sipocz, B. M., et al. 2018, AJ, 156, ˝123
Avdyushev, V. A. & Banshchikova, M. A. 2007, Solar System Research, 41, 413
Belton, M. J. S., Hainaut, O. R., Meech, K. J., et al. 2018, ApJ, 856, L21
Bodewits, D., Noonan, J. W., Feldman, P. D., et al. 2020, Nature Astronomy, 4,867
Bolin, B. T., Weaver, H. A., Fernandez, Y. R., et al. 2018, ApJ, 852, L2
Bolin, B. T. & Lisse, C. M. 2020, MNRAS, 497, 4031
Bolin, B. T., Bodewits, D., Lisse, C. M., et al. 2020a, The Astronomer’s Telegram13613, 1
Bolin, B. T., Lisse, C. M., Kasliwal, M. M., et al. 2020b, AJ, 160, 26
Bordovitsyna, T., Avdyushev, V., & Chernitsov, A. 2001, Celestial Mechanics
and Dynamical Astronomy, 80, 227
Box, G. E. P. & Muller, M. E. 1958, The Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 29,610
Bruck Syal, M., Schultz, P. H., Sunshine, J. M., et al. 2013, Icarus, 222, 610
Cordiner, M. A., Milam, S. N., Biver, N., et al. 2020, Nature Astronomy, 4, 861
Cremonese, G., Fulle, M., Cambianica, P., et al. 2020, ApJ, 893, L12
de la Fuente Marcos, C. & de la Fuente Marcos, R. 2015, MNRAS, 453, 1288
de la Fuente Marcos, C. & de la Fuente Marcos, R. 2017a, Res. Notes Am. Astron. Soc., 1, 5
de la Fuente Marcos, C. & de la Fuente Marcos, R. 2017b, Res. Notes Am. Astron. Soc., 1, 9
de León, J., Licandro, J., Serra-Ricart, M., et al. 2019, Res. Notes Am. Astron. Soc., 3, 131
de León, J., Licandro, J., de la Fuente Marcos, C., et al. 2020, MNRAS, 495,2053
Drahus, M., Guzik, P., Waniak, W., et al. 2018, Nature Astronomy, 2, 407
Drahus, M., Guzik, P., Udalski, A., et al. 2020, The Astronomer’s Telegram13549, 1
Farnham, T. L., Wellnitz, D. D., Hampton, D. L., et al. 2007, Icarus, 187, 26
Farnham, T. L., Bodewits, D., Li, J.-Y., et al. 2013, Icarus, 222, 540
Fitzsimmons, A., Snodgrass, C., Rozitis, B., et al. 2018, Nature Astronomy, 2,133
Fitzsimmons, A., Hainaut, O., Meech, K. J., et al. 2019, ApJ, 885, L9
Flekkøy, E. G., Luu, J., & Toussaint, R. 2019, ApJ, 885, L41
Fraser, W. C., Pravec, P., Fitzsimmons, A., et al. 2018, Nature Astronomy, 2, 383
Freedman, D. & Diaconis, P. 1981, Probability Theory and Related Fields, 57,453
Ginsburg, A., Sipocz, B. M., Brasseur, C. E., et al. 2019, AJ, 157, 98 ˝
Giorgini, J. D. 2015, IAUGA, 22, 2256293
Gladman, B., Boley, A., & Balam, D. 2019, Res. Notes Am. Astron. Soc., 3, 187
Guzik, P., Drahus, M., Rusek, K., et al. 2020, Nature Astronomy, 4, 53
Hainaut, O. R., Meech, K. J., Micheli, M., et al. 2018, The Messenger, 173, 13
Hoang, T. & Loeb, A. 2020, ApJ, 899, L23
Hui, M.-T. & Knight, M. M. 2019, AJ, 158, 256
Hui, M.-T., Ye, Q.-Z., Föhring, D., et al. 2020, AJ, 160, 92
Hunter, J. D. 2007, Computing in Science and Engineering, 9, 90
Jewitt, D., Mutchler, M., Kim, Y., et al. 2020a, The Astronomer’s Telegram 13611, 1
Jewitt, D., Hui, M.-T., Kim, Y., et al. 2020b, ApJ, 888, L23
Jewitt, D., Kim, Y., Mutchler, M., et al. 2020c, ApJ, 896, L39
Kareta, T., Andrews, J., Noonan, J. W., et al. 2020, ApJ, 889, L38
Kidger, M. R., & Manteca, J. 2002, Earth Moon and Planets, 90, 153
Kim, Y., Jewitt, D., Mutchler, M., et al. 2020, ApJ, 895, L34
Knight, M. M., Protopapa, S., Kelley, M. S. P., et al. 2017, ApJ, 851, L31
Knollenberg, J., Lin, Z. Y., Hviid, S. F., et al. 2016, A&A, 596, A89
Krolikowska, M., Sitarski, G., & Szutowicz, S. 1998, A&A, 335, 757
Lin, H. W., Lee, C.-H., Gerdes, D. W., et al. 2020, ApJ, 889, L30
Manzini, F., Oldani, V., Ochner, P., et al. 2020, MNRAS, 495, L92
Marsden, B. G., Sekanina, Z., & Yeomans, D. K. 1973, AJ, 78, 211
Mashchenko, S. 2019, MNRAS, 489, 3003
McKay, A. J., Cochran, A. L., Dello Russo, N., et al. 2020, ApJ, 889, L10
Meech, K. J., Weryk, R., Micheli, M., et al. 2017, Nature, 552, 378
Micheli, M., Farnocchia, D., Meech, K. J., et al. 2018, Nature, 559, 223
Mommert, M., Kelley, M., de Val-Borro, M., et al. 2019, The Journal of Open Source Software, 4, 1426
Opitom, C., Fitzsimmons, A., Jehin, E., et al. 2019, A&A, 631, L8’Oumuamua ISSI Team, Bannister, M. T., Bhandare, A., et al. 2019, Nature Astronomy, 3, 594
Rafikov, R. R. 2018, ApJ, 867, L17
Rinaldi, G., Formisano, M., Kappel, D., et al. 2019, A&A, 630, A21
Rudenko, M. 2016, Asteroids: New Observations, New Models, Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, IAU Symposium, Volume 318, pp. 265-269
Samarasinha, N. H., Mueller, B. E. A., Belton, M. J. S., et al. 2004, Comets II
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press), 281
Scargle, J. D., Norris, J. P., Jackson, B., et al. 2013, ApJ, 764, 167
Scott, D. W. 1992, Multivariate Density Estimation: Theory, Practice, and Visualization (John Wiley & Sons, New York, Chicester)
Sekanina, Z. 1981, ARA&A, 9, 113
Sekanina, Z. 1984, AJ, 89, 1573
Sekanina, Z. 1997, A&A, 318, L5
Sekanina, Z. 2019, arXiv e-prints, arXiv:1911.06271
Seligman, D., Laughlin, G., & Batygin, K. 2019, ApJ, 876, L26
Seligman, D. & Laughlin, G. 2020, ApJ, 896, L8
Sitarski, G. 1990, Acta Astron., 40, 405
Sitarski, G. 1996, Acta Astron., 46, 29
Trilling, D. E., Mommert, M., Hora, J. L., et al. 2018, AJ, 156, 261
Vazan, A. & Sari, R. 2020, MNRAS, 493, 1546
Virtanen, P., Gommers, R., Oliphant, T. E., et al. 2020, Nature Methods, 17, 261
Whipple, F. L. 1950, ApJ, 111, 375
Xing, Z., Bodewits, D., Noonan, J., et al. 2020, ApJ, 893, L48
Yabushita, S. 1996, MNRAS, 283, 347
Yang, B., Kelley, M. S. P., Meech, K. J., et al. 2020, A&A, 634, L6
Ye, Q., Kelley, M. S. P., Bolin, B. T., et al. 2020, AJ, 159, 77
Yeomans, D. K., Chodas, P. W., Sitarski, G., et al. 2004, Comets II (Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press), 137
Zhang, Q., Ye, Q., & Kolokolova, L. 2020, The Astronomer’s Telegram 13618,1
Zhang, Y. & Lin, D. N. C. 2020, Nature Astronomy, 4, 852
Zhou, W. H. 2019, arXiv e-prints, arXiv:1911.12228v2
Zhou, W. H. 2020, ApJ, 899, 42