Physical properties of newly active asteroid 2010 LH₁₅

¹ School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518107, China
² Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Intelligent Microsatellite Constellation, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518107, China
³ Science and Technology on Vacuum Technology and Physics Laboratory, Lanzhou Institute of Physics, Lanzhou 730000, China
⁴ School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

^★ Corresponding author; liuxd36@mail.sysu.edu.cn

Received: 15 March 2024
Accepted: 19 December 2024

Abstract

The main-belt asteroid 2010 LH₁₅ has been classified as an active asteroid, based on the recent discovery of dust activity from the archival images observed in 2010 and 2019. In this study, we perform measurements and dynamical modeling of the dust tail of the active asteroid 2010 LH₁₅ using ZTF archival data from July 26 to August 31, 2019, with the derived physical properties from these relatively independent methods being compatible. The photometric results show that the radius of the nucleus is 1.11 ± 0.02 km, with an assumed geometric albedo of p_r = 0.05, and the color index of the nucleus is relatively close to that of the ejecta around the nucleus, with a value of H_g − H_r = 0.44 ± 0.07. The effective scattering cross section increases at an average rate of 0.28 ± 0.02 km² day⁻¹ throughout the observation period, indicating that the activity of LH₁₅ is likely driven by mechanisms capable of causing a sustained process like sublimation. Further dust dynamics modeling indicates that the dust activity initiates as early as about June 26, 2019, with the ejected dust particles having a radius ranging from 0.03 mm to 3 mm. The dependence of the terminal velocity on dust size is consistent with a sublimation-driven mechanism. If the orbit of LH₁₅ is stable, its sublimation origin will extend the inner boundary of the water-ice-bearing region in the main asteroid belt inward by approximately 0.1 AU.