News - January 2001
02/25/2001
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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 16.5m. No nuclear condensation was
observed down to a limiting magnitude of 21m. (IAUC 7586)
02/19/2001
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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 16m 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)
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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
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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 16.5m 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
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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
293rd offically designated comet discovered by the SOHO spacecraft.
(IAUC 7580, MPEC 2001-C09)
02/05/2001
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New Discovery!:
The LINEAR project discovered a new
comet on Feb. 01, 2001. G. Hug was able to confirm the 18m comet. No
orbit is yet available for comet 2001 C1 - the 58th comet
discovered by LINEAR. (IAUC 7578)
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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 19.5m and will pass its perihelion on Feb. 07, 2001. The
correction to the prediction Delta(T) was about +0.23 day. (IAUC 7577)