News - January 2001

02/25/2001

C. W. Hergenrother (Lunar and Planetary Laboratory) reports the rapid fading of comet C/2000 W1 (Utsunomiya-Jones). A R-band CCD-exposure of Feb. 12.6 shows a 1.7' coma with a brightness of about 16.5^m. No nuclear condensation was observed down to a limiting magnitude of 21^m. (IAUC 7586)

02/19/2001

New Discovery!: Already on Nov. 25, 2000, the LONEOS program discovered an asteroidal object, which was designated 2000 WT₁₆₈. Additional observations, including pre-discovery observations by LINEAR, indicated a cometary orbit, but no sign of cometary activity was noted. CCD observations by C. W. Hergenrother at Catalina of Feb. 13, 2001, do now show a cometary appearance. This was also confirmed by J. Ticha and M. Tichy (Klet) as well as by M. Hicks and B. Buratti (Palomar). The comet P/2000 WT₁₆₈ is now about 16^m and will pass its perihelion on Mar. 23, 2001, at about 1.8 AU. The orbital period is about 7.7 years. (IAUC 7584, MPEC 2001-D05)
A non-Kreutz SOHO comet was found by M. Oates in real-time images of the LASCO instrument aboard the SOHO spacecraft. Comet C/2001 C5 (SOHO) passed its perihelion on Feb. 13, 2001, at about 0.026 AU. (MPC 2001-D07)

02/11/2001

New Discovery!: An asteroidal object, discovered by LINEAR on Feb. 01, 2001, and designated 2001 CV₈, was found to be cometary by several observers. The 16.5^m comet P/2001 CV₈ (LINEAR) is a short periodic one (P about 7.8 years) and passed its perihelion on Jan. 23, 2001, at about 2.1 AU. These elements indicate a 0.14 AU approach to Jupiter in November 1998. (IAUC 7581, MPEC 2001-C24)
Two additional SOHO comets received orbits and designations: Comets C/2001 C3 (SOHO) and C/2001 C4 (SOHO) were discovered by M. Oates. Both are members of the Kreutz group. (MPEC 2001-C23)

02/07/2001

The first and very preliminary orbit for comet C/2001 C1 (LINEAR) indicates a perihelion January 2002, at about 5.5 AU. (IAUC 7579, MPEC 2001-C07)
A relatively bright Kreutz comet was found in SOHO/LASCO C3 images of Feb. 06, 2001, by S. Hönig and X.-M. Zhou. C/2001 C2 (SOHO) is the 293^rd offically designated comet discovered by the SOHO spacecraft. (IAUC 7580, MPEC 2001-C09)

02/05/2001

New Discovery!: The LINEAR project discovered a new comet on Feb. 01, 2001. G. Hug was able to confirm the 18^m comet. No orbit is yet available for comet 2001 C1 - the 58^th comet discovered by LINEAR. (IAUC 7578)
T. Oribe (Saji Observatory, Japan) recovered comet P/1992 G3 (= 1992g = 1992 IV) in images taken on Dec. 22, 2000, and Jan. 30, 2001. Comet P/2000 Y10 (Mueller 4) is about 19.5^m and will pass its perihelion on Feb. 07, 2001. The correction to the prediction Delta(T) was about +0.23 day. (IAUC 7577)