The Active Asteroids

TL;DR

Active asteroids are a diverse group exhibiting dust ejection through various mechanisms, offering insights into asteroid composition, destruction processes, and the origins of planetary volatiles.

Contribution

This paper reviews the diverse mechanisms causing activity in asteroids, highlighting their significance for understanding asteroid behavior and solar system evolution.

Findings

Multiple mechanisms cause asteroid activity, including impacts, rotation, and sublimation.

Active asteroids provide new opportunities to study asteroid composition and destruction.

Activity mechanisms were previously unsuspected or unobservable.

Abstract

Some asteroids eject dust, producing transient, comet-like comae and tails; these are the active asteroids. The causes of activity in this newly-identified population are many and varied. They include impact ejection and disruption, rotational instabilities, electrostatic repulsion, radiation pressure sweeping, dehydration stresses and thermal fracture, in addition to the sublimation of asteroidal ice. These processes were either unsuspected or thought to lie beyond the realm of observation before the discovery of asteroid activity. Scientific interest in the active asteroids lies in their promise to open new avenues into the direct study of asteroid destruction, the production of interplanetary debris, the abundance of asteroid ice and the origin of terrestrial planet volatiles.