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The relationship of active comets, ``extinct'' comets, and dark asteroids

Cruikshank, D. P.; Tholen, D. J.; Hartmann, W. K.

Spectrophotometric data on groups of asteroids in different types of orbits reveal different distributions of spectral properties, depending on whether the orbits are cometary or noncometary. In a list of 10 asteroids frequently suggested on purely dynamical grounds to be extinct or dormant comets, all have properties suggestive of spectral classe…