Annika Gustafsson
Mentor: Scott Fisher, Physics
Poster: 27
Majors: Physics and Mathematics
Observations made with the Hubble Space Telescope in September 2013 revealed that the asteroid known as P/2013 P5 appeared to have six comet-like tails. Jewitt et al. (2013) concluded that this extraordinary structure and activity cannot be explained by traditional near-surface ice sublimation or collision events ejecting particles from the asteroid’s surface. Instead, the most likely explanation is that this unusual object has been spun-up by solar radiation forces to a critical limit that resulted in the rotational disruption of the asteroid causing the unique six-tail structure. This interpretation predicts that the nucleus of this comet-like asteroid should be in rapid rotation as a result of spin- up caused by the solar radiation forces. In November 2013, Dr. Stephen Levine obtained broadband photometry of P/2013 P5 for a duration of 4 hours using Lowell Observatory’s 4.3-meter Discovery Channel Telescope with the Large Monolithic Imager to investigate the possibility of rapid rotation. After performing differential photometry on P/2013 P5, the resulting light curves were analyzed to search for periodicity of 2.2 hours, an easy indicator of rapid rotation. While the variation in the rotational light curve from these data was too small to be justifiable, morphological changes in the nucleus-coma system were observed.