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Centaurs are minor planets thought to have originated in the outer SolarSystem region known as the Kuiper Belt. Active Centaurs enigmatically displaycomet-like features (e.g., tails, comae) even though they orbit in the gasgiant region where it is too cold for water to readily sublimate. Only 18active Centaurs have been identified since 1927 and, consequently, theunderlying activity mechanism(s) have remained largely unknown up to thispoint. Here we report the discovery of activity emanating from Centaur 2014OG392, based on archival images we uncovered plus our own new observationalevidence acquired with the Dark Energy Camera (Cerro Tololo Inter-AmericanObservatory Blanco 4 m telescope), the Inamori-Magellan Areal Camera &Spectrograph (Las Campanas Observatory 6.5 m Walter Baade Telescope) and theLarge Monolithic Imager (Lowell Observatory 4.3 m Discovery Channel Telescope).We detect a coma as far as 400,000 km from 2014 OG392, and our novel analysisof sublimation processes and dynamical lifetime suggest carbon dioxide and/orammonia are the most likely candidates for causing activity on this and otheractive Centaurs. We find 2014 OG392 is optically red, but CO2 and NH3 arespectrally neutral in this wavelength regime so the reddening agent is as yetunidentified.

Cometary Activity Discovered on a Distant Centaur: A Non-Aqueous Sublimation Mechanism