News - September 2001

09/30/2001

New Discovery!: B. A. Skiff (Lowell Observatory) reports the discovery of another new comet in CCD images taken in the course of the LONEOS program on Sept. 26. The 17.5^m comet C/2001 S1 (Skiff) passed perihelion already on June 01, 2001, at about 3.8 AU. (IAUC 7725, MPC 2001-S75) It is the 18^th comet discovery for LONEOS.
An archival SOHO comet, detected by X. Leprette in data of Jan. 21, 1996, received an orbit and a designation. C/1996 B4 (SOHO) is a member of the Kreutz group. This is SOHOs 351^st comet. (MPEC 2001-S70)

09/29/2001

The DS1 flyby of comet 19P/Borrelly was a total success. 32 images of the comets nucleus were taken and represent the best images of such an object until now. Images can be found here and here. A collection of further links can be found in the latest Cosmic Mirror.
New Discovery!: B. A. Skiff (Lowell Observatory) reports the discovery of a new comet in CCD images taken in the course of the LONEOS program on Sept. 25. T. B. Spahr identified this comet with an object observed on Sept. 11, and 16, 2001, by the LINEAR program. Subsequently another LINEAR observation of Aug. 19, 2001, was also linked. The 16.5^m comet P/2001 R6 (LINEAR-Skiff) will pass perihelion on Oct. 26, 2001, at about 2.1 AU. It has a period of about 8.3 years. (IAUC 7723, MPC 2001-S55) It is the 64^th comet for LINEAR and the 17^th comet for LONEOS.
An improved orbit for comet P/2001 R1 (LONEOS) (including prediscovery observations by LINEAR of Aug. 19) indicate a close pass with Mars on Jan. 10.7, 2002, with about 0.014 AU as first suggested by C.-I. Lagerkvist (Uppsala) and G. Hahn (German Aerospace Center, Berlin). (IAUC 7720)

09/17/2001

With additional astrometric data comet 2001 Q6 turned out to be of short-period. Comet P/2001 Q6 (NEAT) has a period of about 23 years. (MPEC 2001-S06)

09/15/2001

Three further SOHO comets - all members of the Kreutz group - received orbits and designations. C/2001 R3 (SOHO) was detected by M. Meyer, C/2001 R4 (SOHO) by X.-M. Zhou and C/2001 R5 (SOHO) by D. Johnson. The number of SOHO's comet discoveries has now reached 350. (MPEC 2001-R51)

09/13/2001

Two SOHO comets received orbits and designations. Comet C/2001 Q7 (SOHO) was detected by R. Kracht on Aug. 21, in C2 real time images and is a non-Kreutz comet. C/2001 R2 (SOHO) was detected by S. Hönig on Sep. 03, in C3 real time images and is a member of the Kreutz group. This comet became quite bright and showed a nice tail. The SOHO score is now at 347 offical comet discoveries. (MPEC 2001-R34, -36)

09/12/2001

New Discovery!: An apparently asteroidal object discovered in the course of the LONEOS program on Sep. 10, turned out to be cometary in follow-up observations. The 17.5^m comet P/2001 R1 (LONEOS) is periodic with a P of about 7.9 years and will pass its perihelion at the end of January 2002, at about 1.3 AU. The comet is instrinsically quite faint and may become not brighter than 15^m. This is the 16^th new comet discovered by LONEOS. (IAUC 7713)

09/11/2001

The next Great Comet might be on its way! Additional astrometric observations of comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) lead to a drastically changed orbit. The comet will now pass perihelion in May 2004 (still uncertain by several weeks) at a distance almost exactly 1 AU. It will become at least a binocular object and naked eye brightness is possible. The comet is intrinsically quite bright and the assumption of standard parameters yields a maximum brightness of 1^m but it is still too early to say anything for sure. The comet should become visible in the Northern hemisphere after its perihelion but changes in the perihelion time can still change this. (IAUC 7711)

09/03/2001

The NEAT team reports the discovery of another asteroidal object travelling in a cometray orbit on Aug. 17, 2001. The asteroid 2001 QL₁₆₉ has a period of about 5.5 years and is about 19^m. It has just passed perihelion bei at about 1.5 AU. The object came close to Jupiter in 1860 (0.74 AU) and 1943 (0.74 AU) which did not change its orbit significantly. Further close approaches in 2014 (0.78 AU) and 2098 (0.84 AU) will also lead to no significant changes. (MPEC 2001-R05)