331P/Gibbs

Not to be confused with 313P/Gibbs. For other comets of the same name, see Comet Gibbs.
331P/Gibbs
Fragments and dust trail of comet 331P/Gibbs as seen from the Hubble Space Telescope on 25 December 2015.[1]
Discovery[2]
Discovered byAlex R. Gibbs
Discovery siteMount Lemmon Survey
Discovery date22 March 2012
Designations
P/2012 F5
Gibbs 14[3]
Orbital characteristics[4][5]
Epoch21 November 2025 (JD 2461000.5)
Observation arc21.29 years
Earliest precovery date26 August 2004
Number of
observations		213
Aphelion3.127 AU
Perihelion2.878 AU
Semi-major axis3.003 AU
Eccentricity0.04142
Orbital period5.203 years
Inclination9.741°
216.74°
Argument of
periapsis		185.75°
Mean anomaly353.49°
Last perihelion25 December 2025
Next perihelion16 March 2031[6]
TJupiter3.228
Earth MOID1.886 AU
Jupiter MOID2.087 AU
Physical characteristics[7]
Mean diameter
1.77 km (1.10 mi)
3.24±0.01 hours
Comet total
magnitude (M1)		16.8

331P/Gibbs (P/2012 F5) is a small Encke-type comet and active asteroid, discovered by American astronomer Alex Gibbs.[2]

Description

It is a rare type of comet called a main-belt comet. Although most comets come from the Oort cloud or the Kuiper belt, main-belt comets are instead members of the asteroid belt that have a coma and tail. As of 2016, it is one of only 15 known main-belt comets.[8]

Precovery observations of 331P/Gibbs in Sloan Digital Sky Survey data were found dating to August 2004, in which the object was visible as a regular asteroid. Further observations in 2014 by the Keck Observatory showed that the comet was fractured into 5 pieces and rotating rapidly, with a rotation period of only 3.2 hours. Due to the YORP effect, 331P/Gibbs had begun to spin so quickly that, being a likely rubble pile, parts began to be thrown off, leaving a very long dust trail.[9] This is very similar to 311P/PANSTARRS, being the best-established cause for main-belt comets along with impacts between small asteroids (such as with 596 Scheila and 354P/LINEAR).

Orbit

The orbit of 331P/Gibbs is found within the dynamically cold region of the outer asteroid belt at distances between 2.88–3.13 AU (431–468 million km) from the Sun.[5] A 2014 study revealed that it is a member of a previously unknown extremely compact cluster of nine asteroids now known as the Gibbs cluster,[a] which was likely formed by a catastrophic collision event of their parent body more than 1.5 million years ago.[10] Its orbit in the outer main belt is dynamically stable over timescales of 1 billion years.[11]

Notes

References

  1. ↑ M. T. Hui; D. C. Jewitt (2022). "Fragment Dynamics in Active Asteroid 331P/Gibbs". The Astronomical Journal. 164 (6): 236. arXiv:2210.01432. Bibcode:2022AJ....164..236H. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ac978d.
  2. 1 2 A. R. Gibbs; H. Sato; W. H. Ryan; et al. (March 2012). D. W. Green (ed.). "Comet P/2012 F5 (Gibbs)" (TXT). Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. 3069: 1. Bibcode:2012CBET.3069....1G.
  3. ↑ "Periodic Comet Names and Designations". Planetary Data System: Small Body Node. NASA. Retrieved 4 July 2026.
  4. ↑ "331P/Gibbs – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  5. 1 2 "331P/Gibbs Orbit". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 26 February 2019.
  6. ↑ "Horizons Batch for 331P/Gibbs (90001305) on 2031-Mar-16" (Perihelion occurs when rdot flips from negative to positive). JPL Horizons. Retrieved 19 April 2026. (JPL#41 Soln.date: 2025-Dec-18)
  7. ↑ M. Drahus; W. Waniak; S. Tendulkar; et al. (2015). "Fast Rotation and Trailing Fragments of the Active Asteroid P/2012 F5 (Gibbs)". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 802 (1): 8–14. arXiv:1503.05632. Bibcode:2015ApJ...802L...8D. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/802/1/L8.
  8. ↑ "JPL Small-Body Database Search Engine". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NASA. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  9. ↑ "Active asteroid spun so fast that it exploded". Astronomy Now. 23 March 2015. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  10. 1 2 B. Novaković; H. H. Hsieh; A. Cellino; et al. (2014). "Discovery of a young asteroid cluster associated with P/2012 F5 (Gibbs)". Icarus. 231: 300–309. arXiv:1401.2966. Bibcode:2014Icar..231..300N. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2013.12.019.
  11. ↑ R. Stevenson; E. A. Kramer; J. M. Bauer; et al. (2012). "Characterization of Active Main Belt Object P/2012 F5 (Gibbs): A Possible Impacted Asteroid". The Astrophysical Journal. 759 (2): 142–150. arXiv:1209.5450. Bibcode:2012ApJ...759..142S. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/759/2/142.
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