483P/PanSTARRS (provisional designation P/2016 J1) is a pair of active main-belt asteroids that split apart from each other in early 2010. The brighter and larger component of the pair, P/2016 J1-A, was discovered first by the Pan-STARRS 1 survey at Haleakalā Observatory on 5 May 2016. Follow-up observations by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope at Mauna Kea Observatory discovered the second component, P/2016 J1-B, on 6 May 2016. Both asteroids are smaller than in diameter, with P/2016 J1-A being roughly in diameter and P/2016 J1-B being roughly in diameter. The two components recurrently exhibit cometary activity as they approach the Sun near perihelion, suggesting that their activity is driven by sublimation of volatile compounds such as water.
Orbit
Asteroid family In 2018, an orbit analysis by Hsieh et al. found that both components of P/2016 J1 are related to the Theobalda asteroid family of C-, F-, and X-type asteroids. The Theobalda family likely originated as fragments from an impact event that shattered a -diameter parent body million years ago. Another ice-sublimating active asteroid, 427P/ATLAS (P/2017 S5), was also identified to be part the Theobalda family, suggesting that some members of this family were able to retain subsurface water ice since the collision that formed them.
See also Asteroid pair and – a pair of main-belt asteroids thought to have recently dissociated from a binary system Active asteroid – A widely-separated binary main-belt comet P/2013 R3 (Catalina–PanSTARRS) – an active asteroid that completely disintegrated due to rotational breakup 331P/Gibbs – another active asteroid disintegrating and fragmenting by rotational breakup
References
External links P/2016 J1: an asteroid that split in two and whose fragments, years later, developed tails, Silbia López de Lacalle, Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, 28 February 2017 The Splitting of Double-component Active Asteroid P/2016 J1 (PANSTARRS), presentation by Fernando Moreno, European Space Agency, 2017
483P/PanSTARRS at Seiichi Yoshida's website 483P/PanSTARRS at Gideon van Buitenen's website