News - July 2001

07/31/2001

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 18^m comet C/2001 O2 (IAUC 7654) is the 11^th comet found by the NEAT program.
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

SOHO's 342^nd 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

SOHO's 341^st 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

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

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 17.5^m 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 62^nd 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 5^m. (e-mail)
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 15^m and will pass its perihelion on Nov. 30, 2001, at about 1.3 AU when it may then reach about 13^m. It is a periodic comet with a P of about 7.5 years. (IAUC 7660) It is the 61^st new comet discovery by LINEAR.

07/12/2001

Michael Mattiazzo reports another possible outburst of comet C/2001 A2 (LINEAR). He observed a stellar central region and a brightening by 0.5^m within 24 hours from 5.6^m to 5.1^m (July 11.69 - 12.64 UT). Observations are strongly encouraged! (MPML)
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

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

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

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 18.5^m 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 10^th 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)
M. Oates reported another Kreutz comet fragment in LASCO/C2 real time images. Comet C/2001 M9 (SOHO) is the 338^th official SOHO comet discovery. (MPEC 2001-M55)