Abstract

We report the results of multicolor optical observations of asteroid (3552) Don Quixote carried out at the Zeiss-1000 telescope of the Sanglokh International Astronomical Observatory of the Institute of Astrophysics of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan in July 2018. The apparent and absolute magnitudes of the asteroid were determined in the VRI bands. The analysis of the light curves of the asteroid showed that the brightness substantially varied during the observations—from 11.50 ± 0.10 to 13.10 ± 0.18 of absolute it magnitudes. Such a considerable change in the magnitude is indicative of an outburst the asteroid, which means that we detected activity typical for comets. According to our observations, the color index (V‒R) corresponds to the values for nuclei of extinct short-period comets and D-type asteroids. The comet-like orbit, the low albedo, the color index, and detected activity suggest that the asteroid is very likely the nucleus of an extinct comet. According to the observations performed ten days after the outburst, the mean value of the effective diameter of the asteroid is 18.5 ± 2.5 km; and this estimate agrees well with the data available, which means that the outburst had terminated by that time. We suppose that the dust ejection and, consequently, the outburst resulted from a collision of asteroid 3552 with a small object or from the micrometeoroids bombardment of its surface.

中文翻译：

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Sanglokh天文台的观测结果提供了小行星唐吉x德彗星性质的证据

摘要

我们报告了塔吉克斯坦共和国科学院天体物理研究所Sanglokh国际天文观测所的Zeiss-1000望远镜在Zeiss-1000望远镜上进行的小行星（3552）唐吉x德多色光学观测的结果。在VRI波段确定了小行星的绝对大小。对小行星光曲线的分析表明，在观察期间，亮度发生了显着变化-绝对值从11.50±0.10到13.10±0.18。如此巨大的变化表明小行星已经爆发，这意味着我们检测到了典型的彗星活动。根据我们的观察，颜色指数（V ‒ R）对应于已灭绝的短周期彗星和D型小行星的核值。像彗星一样的轨道，低的反照率，颜色指数和探测到的活动表明，小行星很可能是灭绝彗星的核。根据爆发后10天的观察结果，小行星有效直径的平均值为18.5±2.5 km。并且该估算值与现有数据非常吻合，这意味着该次爆发已经终止。我们假设灰尘的喷发以及因此的爆发是由于小行星3552与小物体的碰撞或其表面的微流星体轰炸造成的。