News - July 2001
07/31/2001
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New Discovery!:
K. J. Lawrence, S. Pravdo, and E. F. Helin (JPL) report the discovery of a new
comet in the course of the NEAT program
on July 25, 2001. The 18m comet C/2001 O2 (IAUC 7654) is the
11th comet found by the NEAT program.
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The IAU Committee on Small Bodies Nomenclature has agreed upon the names for the
following five comets: C/2000 S3 (LONEOS),
150P/2000 WT168 (LONEOS), C/2000 Y2 (Skiff),
C/2001 G1 (LONEOS), C/2001 HT50 (LINEAR-NEAT). (IAUC
7674)
07/29/2001
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SOHO's 342nd comet was detected by R. Gorelli in archival LASCO/C3
images of January 14, 1996, when the C3 coronagraph was still taking test images
through an orange filter and the C2 coronagaph was not yet working.
C/1996 A2 (SOHO) is a member of the Kreutz group. (MPEC 2001-O43)
07/18/2001
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SOHO's 341st comet was detected by S. Hönig in LASCO/C3 real-time
images. C/2001 O1 (SOHO) is a member of the Kreutz group.
07/17/2001
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According to recent visual observations of comet C/2001 A2 (LINEAR) the
pronounced central condensation with a DC of about 6-7 is nearly gone and the DC
value has fallen to about 3. (personal communication, WWW)
07/14/2001
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New Discovery!:
On July 11, 2001, the LINEAR program
discovered an asteroidal object, which was found to by diffuse with a short tail
in follow-up observations by M. Hicks, D. Esqueda, and T. Ha (Table Mountain).
Comet C/2001 N2 (LINEAR) is about 17.5m and will pass its
perihelion in August 2002, at about 3.2 AU according to the first and preliminary
orbit. (IAUC 7661) It is the 62nd new comet discovery by LINEAR.
07/13/2001
- More observations confirmed the outburst of comet C/2001 A2 (LINEAR)
reported by M. Mattiazzo (cf. News of July 12,
Recent FG observations). The comet may be even brighter
than 5m. (e-mail)
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New Discovery!:
On July 11, 2001, the LINEAR program
discovered a diffuse object which was identified with an asteroidal object observed
by LINEAR on June 21, and designated 2001 MD7 (MPS 31852). The comet
P/2001 MD7 (LINEAR) is now about 15m and will pass its
perihelion on Nov. 30, 2001, at about 1.3 AU when it may then reach about 13m.
It is a periodic comet with a P of about 7.5 years. (IAUC 7660) It is the
61st new comet discovery by LINEAR.
07/12/2001
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Michael Mattiazzo reports another possible outburst of comet C/2001 A2 (LINEAR).
He observed a stellar central region and a brightening by 0.5m within 24
hours from 5.6m to 5.1m (July 11.69 - 12.64 UT). Observations are
strongly encouraged! (MPML)
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Two more Kreutz comet fragments were found in the SOHO/LASCO-C2 real time data.
C/2001 M11 (SOHO) and C/2001 N1 (SOHO) were detected by M. Oates and
X. Leprette, respectively. (MPEC 2001-N24) The SOHO score is now at 340 officially
designated comets.
07/11/2001
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The earth will cross the orbital plane of comet C/2001 A2 (LINEAR) around
July 15 - 16, 2001. This may lead to an enhancement of the dust-tail not only in
anti-solar but also in solar direction (anti-tail). Since this comet seems to be
quite low in dust production it is possible that no enhancement can be seen.
(M. Mattiazzo)
07/05/2001
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High resolution monitoring of comet C/2001 A2 (LINEAR) with several ESO telescopes
at La Silla (Chile) revealed continuous fragmentation of this comet. Z. Sekanina
reports that these observations can be satisfied by 3 components D, E, and F.
Calculated framentation times are June 3.5 +/- 1.8 (D from B), 9.5 +/- 0.7 (E) and
11.3 +/- 0.5 (F). These events may have triggered the brightness outburst which
peaked around June 12. (IAUC 7656)
07/01/2001
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New Discovery!:
K. J. Lawrence, E. F. Helin, and S. Pravdo (JPL) report the discovery of a new
comet in the course of the NEAT program
on June 20, 2001. The 18.5m comet C/2001 M10 (NEAT) is a periodic
comet with a period of about 138 years. It passed its perihelion on June 16, 2001,
at about 5.3 AU. (IAUC 7654) This is the 10th comet found by the
NEAT program.
- The 2001 Edgar Wilson Award
for amateur comet discoveries was announced by the SAO. The award goes to Albert
Francis Arthur Lofley Jones (New Zealand) and Syogo Utsunomiya (Japan) for their
discovery of comet C/2000 W1 (Utsunomiya-Jones). (IAUC 7652)
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M. Oates reported another Kreutz comet fragment in LASCO/C2 real time images.
Comet C/2001 M9 (SOHO) is the 338th official SOHO comet
discovery. (MPEC 2001-M55)