Some physical properties of a new Jupiter-family comet P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS) from broadband observations

TL;DR

This study presents broadband observational data of the Jupiter-family comet P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS), analyzing its physical properties, coma characteristics, and dust tail morphology to enhance understanding of its nature.

Contribution

The paper provides new broadband observational measurements and analysis of P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS), including size estimates and dust tail explanation, which were not previously available.

Findings

Comet's upper radius limit is 6.1 km.

Absolute magnitude H0 is 11.41.

Dust tail analyzed using Finson-Probstein diagram.

Abstract

New periodic comet P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS) located on unstable quasi-Trojan orbit still an interesting object to study in the last years. We present the results of broadband observations of comet P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS) performed at the Sanglokh observatory of the Institute of Astrophysics, National Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan for 5 nights in August 2020. The dependence of the Afrho parameters of the comet on the aperture radius is measured. We obtained the coma corrected upper limit of the cometary radius Rn not more than 6.1 +- 0.1 km and calculated the absolute magnitude H0 = 11.41 +- 0.03. Finson - Probstein diagram method was used to explain a dust tail appearance. A subgroup of comets with orbital parameters close to P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS) is analyzed.