Color Systematics of Comets and Related Bodies
Dave Jewitt

TL;DR
This study analyzes the optical colors of various comet-related bodies, revealing that their dust and nuclei share similar colors, and ultrared surfaces are absent in active comets due to surface blanketing by fallback ejecta.
Contribution
It provides new color measurements of cometary bodies and demonstrates that ultrared matter is destroyed upon entry into the inner solar system, unifying color characteristics across populations.
Findings
Short- and long-period comets have identical dust colors.
Ultrared surfaces are absent in active comets and Centaurs.
Surface blanketing by fallback ejecta explains the loss of ultrared matter.
Abstract
Most comets are volatile-rich bodies that have recently entered the inner solar system following long-term storage in the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud reservoirs. These reservoirs feed several distinct, short-lived "small body" populations. Here, we present new measurements of the optical colors of cometary and comet-related bodies including long-period (Oort cloud) comets, Damocloids (probable inactive nuclei of long-period comets) and Centaurs (recent escapees from the Kuiper belt and precursors to the Jupiter family comets). We combine the new measurements with published data on short-period comets, Jovian Trojans and Kuiper belt objects to examine the color systematics of the comet-related populations. We find that the mean optical colors of the dust in short-period and long-period comets are identical within the uncertainties of measurement, as are the colors of the dust and of…
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