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133P/Elst-Pizarro is an object that has been described as either an active asteroid or a cometary object in the main asteroid belt. Here we present a photometric and polarimetric study of this object in an attempt to infer additional information about its origin. With the FORS1 instrument of the ESO VLT, we have performed during the 2007 apparition of 133P/Elst-Pizarro quasi-simultaneous photometry and polarimetry of its nucleus at nine epochs in the phase angle range 0 - 20 deg. For each observing epoch, we also combined all available frames to obtain a deep image of the object, to seek signatures of weak cometary activity. Polarimetric data were analysed by means of a novel physical interference modelling. The object brightness was found to be highly variable over timescales <1h, a result fully consistent with previous studies. Using the albedo-polarization relationships for asteroids and our photometric results, we found for our target an albedo of about 0.06-0.07 and a mean radius of about 1.6 km. Throughout the observing epochs, our deep imaging of the comet detects a tail and an anti-tail. Their temporal variations are consistent with an activity profile starting around mid May 2007 of minimum duration of four months. Our images show marginal evidence of a coma around the nucleus. The overall light scattering behaviour (photometry and polarimetry) resembles most closely that of F-type asteroids.
We describe Castalia, a proposed mission to rendezvous with a Main Belt Comet (MBC), 133P/Elst-Pizarro. MBCs are a recently discovered population of apparently icy bodies within the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which may represent the
We present the visible spectrum of MBCs 133P/Elst-Pizarro and 176P/LINEAR, as well as three Themis family asteroids: (62) Erato, (379), Huenna and (383) Janina, obtained in 2007 using three telescopes at El Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, in La P
We present new photometric observations for twelve asteroids ((122) Gerda, (152) Atala, (260) Huberta, (665) Sabine, (692) Hippodamia, (723) Hammonia, (745) Mauritia, (768) Struveana, (863) Benkoela, (1113) Katja, (1175) Margo, (2057) Rosemary) from
On January 1st 2019, the New Horizons spacecraft flew by the classical Kuiper belt object (486958) Arrokoth (provisionally designated 2014 MU69), possibly the most primitive object ever explored by a spacecraft. The I/F of Arrokoth is analyzed and fi
Context. A lot of photometric data is produced by surveys such as Pan-STARRS, LONEOS, WISE or Catalina. These data are a rich source of information about the physical properties of asteroids. There are several possible approaches for utilizing these