Emerging Diversity Among the Main-Belt Comets: Insights from JWST and Ground-Based Observations of 457P/Lemmon-PANSTARRS

TL;DR

This study uses JWST and ground-based observations to investigate the activity and gas emissions of main-belt comet 457P/Lemmon-PANSTARRS, revealing no detectable water or other volatiles despite dust activity.

Contribution

First combined JWST and ground-based observational analysis of a main-belt comet within the 5:2 resonance, providing new constraints on its volatile content.

Findings

No detectable H2O, CO, CO2, or CH3OH emissions from 457P within sensitive limits.

457P's water production rate is less than 2x10^24 molecules/sec, indicating possible depletion.

Dust activity observed despite absence of volatile emissions, suggesting different activity mechanisms.

Abstract

We present JWST NIRSpec and NIRCam observations of 457P/Lemmon-PANSTARRS, a main-belt comet that displayed activity around its 2020 perihelion and that was observed to regain activity during its 2024 perihelion by a ground-based observing campaign. The previous successful measurements of water production from two main-belt comets by the JWST NIRSpec instrument confirmed the hypothesis that H2O reservoirs are responsible for activity in dynamically stable main-belt comets. However, the main-belt comets observed with JWST thus far, 238P/Read and 358P/PANSTARRS, occupy orbits in the outer main-belt, with main-belt comets with smaller semi-major axes not yet sensitively tested for H2O. We find that despite clearly displaying dust activity in both ground-based and JWST imaging over a broad period, there were no corresponding H2O, CO, CO2, or CH3OH emissions within sensitive upper limits; notable given 457P is the first main-belt comet with a semi-major axis within the 5:2 mean-motion resonance with Jupiter. We show that we were sensitive to production rates of gas predicted by the dust/gas ratios of 238P and 358P, and hypothesize that 457P may be more depleted than its companions; Q(H2O) must be less than 2x10^24 molecules/s, or 0.035 kg/s. Further surveying of main-belt comets across the parameter space of semi-major axis and eccentricity will shed light on whether 457P represents an edge member of a spectrum or a distinct subclass of main-belt comets.