Discovery of Dust Emission Activity Emanating from Main-belt Asteroid 2015 FW412

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of dust emission activity from main-belt asteroid 2015 FW412, identified through citizen science and archival images, suggesting it may be a main-belt comet driven by sublimation.

Contribution

First detection of dust activity from asteroid 2015 FW412 using archival data, indicating potential main-belt comet behavior and demonstrating citizen science effectiveness.

Findings

Dust tail observed near perihelion in 2015 images

No activity detected near aphelion in 2021

2015 FW412 is a candidate main-belt comet

Abstract

We present the discovery of activity emanating from main-belt asteroid 2015 FW412, a finding stemming from the Citizen Science project Active Asteroids, a NASA Partner program. We identified a pronounced tail originating from 2015 FW412 and oriented in the anti-motion direction in archival Blanco 4-m (Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile) Dark Energy Camera (DECam) images from UT 2015 April 13, 18, 19, 21 and 22. Activity occurred near perihelion, consistent with the main-belt comets (MBCs), an active asteroid subset known for sublimation-driven activity in the main asteroid belt; thus 2015 FW412 is a candidate MBC. We did not detect activity on UT 2021 December 12 using the Inamori-Magellan Areal Camera and Spectrograph (IMACS) on the 6.5 m Baade telescope, when 2015 FW412 was near aphelion.