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Solar system bodies with surface and sub-surface volatiles will showobservational evidence of activity when they reach a temperature where thosevolatiles change from solid to gas and are released. This is most frequentlyseen in comets, where activity is driven by the sublimation of water, carbondioxide, or carbon monoxide ices. However, some bodies (notably the asteroid(3200) Phaethon) show initiation of activity at very small heliocentricdistances, long after they have reached the sublimation temperatures of theseices. We investigate whether the sodium present in the mineral matrix could actas the volatile element responsible for this activity. We conduct theoreticalmodeling which indicates that sodium has the potential to sublimate in theconditions that Phaethon experiences, depending on the mineral phase it is heldin. To test this, we then exposed samples of the carbonaceous chondrite Allendeto varying heating events similar to what would be experienced by lowperihelion asteroids. We measured the change in sodium present in each sample,and find that the highest temperature samples show a significant loss of sodiumfrom specific mineral phases over a single heating event, comparable to a dayon the surface of Phaethon. Under specific thermal histories possible forPhaethon, this outgassing could be sufficient to explain this object's observedactivity. This effect would also be expected to be observed for otherlow-perihelia asteroids as well, and may act as a critical step in the processof disrupting small low-albedo asteroids.

Volatility of Sodium in Carbonaceous Chondrites at Temperatures Consistent with Low-Perihelia Asteroids