Program: GN-2017B-FT-14

Activity modifies the surfaces of cometary bodies as a result of Solar heating (e.g. Jewitt 2016 [1A]), and the observation of pristine pre-cometary surfaces is critical in quantifying this surface evolution. Comets are typically smaller than the known objects in cometary reservoirs because surface activity increases the detectability of comets. With the discovery of 2009 MS9 (a ~60 km object from the Oort cloud with no activity at its perihelion distance of ~11 AU) and Col3N10 (an inactive scattering TNO captured into resonance with Saturn, with a perihelion distance of 8.3 AU approximately 8 km in diameter) we have a unique opportunity to observe spectra of two unmodified cometary cores. Comparing these previously unstudied pre-cometary cores with TNOs and comets known to originate from the asteroid belt will provide new insight into the primordial composition of cometary objects and how these objects are altered through perihelion passage.