The Active Asteroids
David Jewitt, Henry Hsieh, and Jessica Agarwal

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.
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