Dust loss from activated asteroid P/2015 X6

We present observations and dust tail models of activated asteroid P/2015 X6 from deep imaging data acquired at the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) from 2015 mid-December to 2016 late January. The results of the modeling indicate that the asteroid has undergone sustained dust loss over a period of two months or longer. The dust parameters, derived from multidimensional fits of the available images, are compatible with either ice sublimation or rotational instability processes. An impulsive event, as might be associated with an impact with another body, is less likely. A power-law distribution of particles, with minimum and maximum radii of 1 μm and 1 cm and a power index of -3.3, is found to be consistent with the observations. Depending on the model of ejection velocity adopted, the particle velocities are found to be in the range of 0.3-10 m s-1. The activation time was between 18 and 26 days before discovery. The total mass ejected from that time to the most recent observation is in the range 5-9 × 106 kg. No dust features giving indication of past activity earlier than the activation time have been observed.