Thermal Modeling of Comet-Like Asteroids from AKARI Observation

Recent analysis on the thermophysical property of asteroids revealed that their thermal inertia decrease with their sizes at least for main belt asteroids. However, little is known about that of comet-like bodies. In this work we utilized a simple thermophysical model (TPM) to calculate the thermal inertia of a bare nucleus of the comet P/2006 HR30 (Siding Spring) and an asteroid in comet-like orbit 107P/(4015) Wilson-Harrington from AKARI observation data. From five spectroscopic observations of the targets, we find out that the former has thermal inertia of around $2,000J\;m^{-2}K^{-1}s^{-1/2}$ (using pV = 0.055) and the latter has about $1,000-2000J\;m^{-2}K^{-1}s^{-1/2}$ (using pV = 0.055 and 0.043, respectively). These are high enough for both of them to deposit water ice at few centimeters depth, and hence it is difficult to say they are cometary based on the results of this study. These values, however, dependent significantly on the errors of observation and the uncertainties of the input parameters, as well as other conditions which are ignored in simple TPM approach, such as shape model and surface roughness. Further detailed analyses on these cometary bodies will shed light on our understanding of the detailed surfacial characteristics of them.