News - March 2001
03/31/2001
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Comet C/2001 A2 (LINEAR) has undergone an outburst which increased the brightness
of this comet from 11m to about 7m within 36 hours. The comet
which will pass its perihelion on May 24, 2001, at about 0.78 AU was not expected to
become brighter than 10m. If it can keep this brightness level it may reach
3m - but if the outburst is due to a breakup of the nucleus the comet may
fade within the coming days. An ephemeris can be found
here.
(IAUC 7605)
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M. Boschat found another comet in SOHO real-time images. Comet C/2001 F2 (SOHO) is
a member of the Kreutz group. (MPEC 2001-F55)
03/30/2001
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New Discovery!:
E. F. Helin, S. Pravdo, and K. Lawrence (JPL) report the discovery of another new
comet in the course of the NEAT project on
Mar. 24, 2001. The 17.5m comet P/2001 F1 (NEAT) passed its
perihelion already in January 2001, at about 4.3 AU. It is a periodic comet with a
period of about 15.4 years. (IAUC 7604, MPEC 2001-F51)
- Three SOHO comets received orbits and designations: C/1996 L1 (SOHO) and
C/1997 M5 (SOHO) were found by X. Leprette in archival data.
C/2001 E1 (SOHO) is a non-Kreutz comet and was found in real-time data by
M. Oates. Now 300 new comets have been officially discovered SOHO spacecraft.
(MPEC 2001-F52)
03/22/2001
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New Discovery!:
S. Pravdo, K. Lawrence, and E. Helin (JPL) reported the discovery of a new comet in
the course of the NEAT project. T. Spahr
(MPC) was able to link this object with an asteroidal object found by
LINEAR on Mar. 18, and another LINEAR
object found on Jan. 21, and 26, and designated 2001 BB50 (MPS 25734).
The 18m comet P/2001 BB50 (LINEAR-NEAT) (the
60th comet discovered by LINRAR) passed its perihelion on Jan. 30, 2001,
at about 2.3 AU and circles the sun about every 13.6 years. (IAUC 7601,
MPEC 2001-F26)
03/20/2001
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Reiner M. Stoss (Starkenburg-Sternwarte Heppenheim and
DANEOPS) and Rob H. McNaught
(Siding Spring) report the discovery of pre-discovery images of comet
P/2000 WT168 taken on 1978 Mar 6, and 1986 Mar 14 with the
U.K. Schmidt telescope. (IAUC 7600, MPEC 2001-F17)
03/01/2001
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The 297th SOHO comet received an orbit and an official designation:
Comet C/2001 C6 (SOHO) was found by M. Boschat. (MPEC 2001-D42)