Program: GN-2014A-Q-43

Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) play a key role in shaping the geological and biological history of the Earth. An outstanding topic in the planetary science community concerns about the fraction of dormant comets among NEOs, i.e. the objects that were originally comets, but have exhausted their volatiles and are now indistinguishable from asteroids. Our pilot study shows that a newly-discovered sub-kilometer-sized comet, 209P/LINEAR, may be currently undergoing a transition from active comet to dormant comet. Orbital calculation shows that this comet will have a close encounter with the Earth in May 2014, making it bright enough to be studied in detail. Here, we propose to obtain visible/NIR spectra of 209P/LINEAR with GMOS/GNIRS to examine the gas production state of this comet. The strength of the cometary emission/absorption lines will place strong constraint on the nature of 209P/LINEAR, which will enhance our understanding of this sub-kilometer-sized comet. We also have secured times on other facilities which would be combined with our spectral data to study the physical property and dynamical history of 209P/LINEAR.