Tale of a Centaur

International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA Image of a centaur object looking very comet-like. Centaurs are small solar system bodies that orbit the Sun between Jupiter and Neptune. Because they move among the gas giants, their orbits are generally unstable. Gravitationally nudged to and fro until they either tumble toward the inner solar system or are tossed away to the cold of deep space. Centaurs also straddle the gap between asteroids and comets. They aren’t as rocky as the warm bodies of the asteroid belt, nor are they as icy and dormant as cold Kuiper Belt objects. Because of this, studying Centaur objects is a good way to study how icy bodies become comets, as a recent study shows.1 Schambeau, et al. The new orbit of 450P/LONEOS is closer to the Sun. For this study the team used the James Webb Space Telescope and Gemini North observatory to observe a Centaur object known as 450P/LONEOS. This particular object had a close encounter with Saturn in 1992 that significantly…