Disappearance of Comet C/2010 X1 (Elenin): Gone with a Whimper, not a Bang
Jing Li, David Jewitt

TL;DR
This paper analyzes the disintegration of comet C/2010 X1 (Elenin), revealing that its brightness surge was mainly due to dust scattering, and confirming the nucleus disintegrated into small fragments before perihelion.
Contribution
It provides detailed observational evidence of comet Elenin's brightness evolution and confirms the nucleus disintegrated into small fragments, highlighting the role of rotational instability in nucleus breakup.
Findings
Brightness increase mainly due to dust forward-scattering.
Nucleus disintegrated into fragments smaller than 40 meters.
No surviving fragments detected at limiting magnitude.
Abstract
We examine the rise and sudden demise of comet C/2010 X1 (Elenin) on its approach to perihelion. Discovered inbound at 4.2 AU, this long-period comet was predicted to become very bright when near perihelion, at 0.48 AU on 2011 September 10. Observations starting 2011 February (heliocentric distance 3.5 AU) indeed show the comet to brighten by about 11 magnitudes, with most of the increase occurring inside 1 AU from the Sun. The peak brightness reached = 6 on UT 2011 August 12.950.50, when at 0.83 AU from the Sun. We find that most of the surge in brightness in mid-August resulted from dust particle forward-scattering, not from a sudden increase in the activity. A much smaller (3 magnitudes) brightening reached a maximum on UT 2011 August 301 (at 0.56 AU), and reflects the true break-up of the nucleus. This second peak was matched by a change in the…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
