La Cañada Observatory, is an initiative by Juan Lacruz, the observatory started astrometric operations in the summer of 2002, it is registered as station J87 in the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union.

The Observatory also participates in the studies on minor bodies promoted by the Group on Meteorites, Minor Bodies, and Planetary Sciences of the Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC-IEEC).



Wednesday, January 20, 2010

P/2010 A2 (LINEAR) The 5th Main Belt "Comet"

This makes number five of "comets" found in the Main Belt (this one in the inner belt) in typical asteroidal, non-cometary orbits.

Note that it seems to be of the Hirayama's collisional Flora family.
The images show quite a straight tail with a separate fragment probably of a collisional origin as well.
Other two, out of the five known, seem to be of another Hirayama family, Themis .
Read this posts by D.Jewitt http://www2.ess.ucla.edu/~jewitt/MBC5.html

References :
IAUC 9105
IAUC 9109
CBET 2134