  Centaur 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 (SW1) is a highly active object orbiting
in the transitional Gateway region (Sarid et al. 2019) between the Centaur and
Jupiter Family Comet regions. SW1 is unique among the Centaurs in that it
experiences quasi-regular major outbursts and produces CO emission
continuously; however, the source of the CO is unclear. We argue that due to
its very large size (approx. 32 km radius), SW1 is likely still responding, via
amorphous water ice (AWI) conversion to crystalline water ice (CWI), to the
rapid change in its external thermal environment produced by its dynamical
migration from the Kuiper belt to the Gateway Region at the inner edge of the
Centaur region at 6 au. It is this conversion process that is the source of the
abundant CO and dust released from the object during its quiescent and outburst
phases. If correct, these arguments have a number of important predictions
testable via remote sensing and in situ spacecraft characterization, including:
the quick release on Myr timescales of CO from AWI conversion for any few
km-scale scattered disk KBO transiting into the inner system; that to date SW1
has only converted between 50 to 65% of its nuclear AWI to CWI; that volume
changes upon AWI conversion could have caused subsidence and cave-ins, but not
significant mass wasting or crater loss on SW1; that SW1s coma should contain
abundant amounts of CWI CO2-rich icy dust particles; and that when SW1 transits
into the inner system within the next 10,000 years, it will be a very different
kind of JFC comet.
