Gotta keep up with Planetary Science Journal. In vol. 6 (2025):
Bernstein, G. M. et al. Determinations of Asteroid Masses Using Mutual Encounters Observed in the Legacy Survey of Space and Time 162 ade3de
Jackson, S. L. et al. Thermal-IR Observations of (152830) Dinkinesh during the Lucy Mission Flyby 168 ade23c
Gillan, A. F. et al. Dust Production Rates in Jupiter-family Comets. II. Trends and Population Insights from ATLAS Photometry of 116 JFCs 172 ade7fe
Fu, X. et al. Orbital Capture of Ejecta into Periodic Orbits around Binary Asteroid
(65803) Didymos 174 ade8eb
Stern, S. A. et al. Lucy Mission Search Plans for Activity around Its Jovian Trojan Flyby
Targets 177 ade707
Joiret, S. et al. Asteroids Fail to Retain Cometary Impact Signatures 179 ade990
Firgard, M. Kareta, T. Modeling Ice and Dust in Comet C/2017 K2 (Pan-STARRS)’s Coma 184 ade672
Kelley, M. S. P. et al. A Large Outburst, Coma Asymmetries, and the Color of Comet 243P/NEAT 185 ade5ac
We can weigh asteroids- yes, determine asteroid masses- by measuring their tugs on each other. Heavier asteroids will pull lesser ones, depending. With the reams of data from Vera Rubin, we will have asteroid tugs like never before. Bernstein et al. being the process of organizing a measurement campaign- a ten-year campaign.
And the first scientific results from Lucy’s flyby of Dinkinesh are now on record. Jackson et al. publish data from Lucy’s mid-infrared (thermal) instrument.
Before there was Vera Rubin, there were ZTF (Zwicky Transient Facility), ATLAS (Asteroid-Terrestrial impact Last Alert System), and others. These sky surveys take large amounts of data, intentionally and serendipitously. Gillan et al. take chance ATLAS detections of comets and derive their light curves- the profile of activity changes as comets warm up and cool down along their orbits.
Speaking of chance emissions… the DART experiment lofted material from its target, Dimorphos (the satellite of Didymos). How much material, lofted where? Based on the impact, and the gravities of the two bodies, Fu et al. make predictions- predictions that the Hera mission can test when it gets there next year.
Per Gillan et al., Stern et al. ponder activity- the activity of Jupiter Trojan “asteroids”, which may be comets that simply never approach the Sun. The Lucy mission will check for such activity, which would reveal Trojan compositions.
Joiret look for- and fail to find- the distinctive component of comets, in asteroids, presuming collisions between the two classes in the early Solar System. No, not water… xenon and other noble gases. Asteroids often contain water already, confounding the issue. But comets formed xenon-rich. Not finding this xenon tracer has implications for Solar System history.
And on to literal comets. Comets are difficult to reach with spacecraft due to their orbits, which usually limits us to telescopic observations. Given remote sensing, what bits of data can we wring out? Firgard et al. try to derive a coma for a comet.
One such comet helped us at it, so to speak. Kelley et al. observed a comet in outburst- for whatever reason, 243P/NEAT surged in activity. Here are their remote results, at least at that time.