Activity and dust properties of comet C/2020 V2 (ZTF)

Here we present the results of research devoted to a dynamically new comet C/2020 V2 (ZTF). For the study, we used monitoring observations of the comet collected from February to March of 2022 and quasi-simultaneous photometric, spectroscopic, and polarimetric data obtained on June 2, 2022. All the observations were obtained pre-perihelion, when the comet was beyond 4 au from the Sun. The spectrum showed the absence of gaseous emissions above the continuum, allowing us to investigate properties of dust particles in the coma. Despite the large heliocentric distance, the comet was highly active, showing a considerable dust productivity level as the average Afρ parameter value was about 3883⁺⁶⁴⁰₋₂₅₀ cm. The study of coma morphology revealed a circumpolar ejection, but such location makes it difficult to specifically estimate the parameters of the nucleus rotation. At the same time, neither the colour nor the polarisation maps obtained from the June 2 observational data showed any structures, indicating similar characteristics of dust in the jet and the ambient coma. The comet showed a negative polarisation with the average value of -1.2 ± 0.2~\ per\ cent in the r-sdss filter at phase angle α = 12.5○. Modelling of the light scattering showed that dust particles can be represented by moderately porous μm-mm-sized aggregates of submicrometre-sized grains containing water ice, organics, and silicates. Our study shows that comet C/2020 V2 (ZTF) was a typical dynamically new comet with remarkably high activity, which is in particular illustrative of the deviation of such comets from the other cometary populations.