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It is speculated that some weakly active comets may be transitional objectsbetween active and dormant comets. These objects are at a unique stage of theevolution of cometary nuclei, as they are still identifiable as active comets,in contrast to inactive comets that are observationally indistinguishable fromlow albedo asteroids. In this paper, we present a synthesis of comet and meteorobservations of Jupiter-family comet 209P/LINEAR, one of the most weakly activecomets recorded to-date. Images taken by the Xingming 0.35-m telescope and theGemini Flamingo-2 camera are modeled by a Monte Carlo dust model, which yieldsa low dust ejection speed ($1/10$ of that of moderately active comets),dominance of large dust grains, and a low dust production of $0.4~\mathrm{kg\cdot s^{-1}}$ at 19~d after the 2014 perihelion passage. We also find areddish nucleus of 209P/LINEAR that is similar to D-type asteroids and mostTrojan asteroids. Meteor observations with the Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar(CMOR), coupled with meteoroid stream modeling, suggest a low dust productionof the parent over the past few hundred orbits, although there are hints of asome temporary increase in activity in the 18th century. Dynamical simulationsindicate 209P/LINEAR may have resided in a stable near-Earth orbit for $\sim10^4$~yr, which is significantly longer than typical JFCs. All these lines ofevidence imply that 209P/LINEAR as an aging comet quietly exhausting itsremaining near surface volatiles. We also compare 209P/LINEAR to other lowactivity comets, where evidence for a diversity of the origin of low activityis seen.

When Comets Get Old: A Synthesis of Comet and Meteor Observations of the Low Activity Comet 209P/LINEAR