Cometary activity in (457175) 2008 GO98: new observations (01 Aug. 2017)
We continue monitoring the intriguing Hilda-type asteroid (457175) 2008 GO98, after it was found to show cometary activity early last July. Before the Moon will be too invasive, we checked it and it is still active.
Cometary activity in (457175) 2008 GO98: 01 Aug. 2017
The image above is the average of twenty, 180-seconds exposures, remotely taken with “Elena” (PlaneWave 17″+Paramount ME+SBIG STL-6303E) robotic unit available at Virtual Telescope. The image scale is 1.2″/pixel. Part of the exposures were taken with a bright Moon low on the western horizon.
(457175) 2008 GO98, well visible in the center of the image, continues to show evident cometary activity: it displays a little fan-like tail while the magnitude of the “head” is around 18.7. Compared to our previous observations, we see that the activity has been basically constant. We reported our analysis made so far to the IAU’s CBAT.
We will continue monitoring this object, when the Moon will make this possible, to see its future evolution.
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