TY - CHAP
T1 - From Centaurs to comets
T2 - 40 Years
AU - Peixinho, Nuno
AU - Thirouin, Audrey
AU - Tegler, Stephen C.
AU - Di Sisto, Romina P.
AU - Delsanti, Audrey
AU - Guilbert-Lepoutre, Aurélie
AU - Bauer, James G.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/1/1
Y1 - 2019/1/1
N2 - In 1977, while Apple II and Atari computers were being sold, a tiny dot was observed in an inconvenient orbit. The minor body 1977 UB, to be named (2060) Chiron, with an orbit between Saturn and Uranus, became the first Centaur, a new class of minor bodies orbiting roughly between Jupiter and Neptune. The observed overabundance of short-period comets lead to the downfall of the Oort cloud as exclusive source of comets and to the rise of the need for a Trans-Neptunian comet belt. Centaurs were rapidly seen as the transition phase between Kuiper belt objects, also known as Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) and the Jupiter-family comets (JFCs). Since then, a lot more has been discovered about Centaurs: They can have cometary activity and outbursts, satellites, and even rings. Over the past four decades since the discovery of the first Centaur, rotation periods, surface colors, reflectivity spectra, and albedos have been measured and analyzed. However, despite such a large number of studies and complementary techniques, the Centaur population remains a mystery as they are in so many ways different from the TNOs and even more so from the JFCs.
AB - In 1977, while Apple II and Atari computers were being sold, a tiny dot was observed in an inconvenient orbit. The minor body 1977 UB, to be named (2060) Chiron, with an orbit between Saturn and Uranus, became the first Centaur, a new class of minor bodies orbiting roughly between Jupiter and Neptune. The observed overabundance of short-period comets lead to the downfall of the Oort cloud as exclusive source of comets and to the rise of the need for a Trans-Neptunian comet belt. Centaurs were rapidly seen as the transition phase between Kuiper belt objects, also known as Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) and the Jupiter-family comets (JFCs). Since then, a lot more has been discovered about Centaurs: They can have cometary activity and outbursts, satellites, and even rings. Over the past four decades since the discovery of the first Centaur, rotation periods, surface colors, reflectivity spectra, and albedos have been measured and analyzed. However, despite such a large number of studies and complementary techniques, the Centaur population remains a mystery as they are in so many ways different from the TNOs and even more so from the JFCs.
KW - Centaurs
KW - Comets
KW - Ice
KW - Photometry
KW - Spectroscopy
KW - Thermal histories
KW - Trans-Neptunian objects
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85081962775&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85081962775&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/B978-0-12-816490-7.00014-X
DO - 10.1016/B978-0-12-816490-7.00014-X
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85081962775
SP - 307
EP - 329
BT - The Trans-Neptunian Solar System
PB - Elsevier
ER -