News - January 2002

01/30/2002

Comet C/2000 WM1 (LINEAR) underwent a major outburst. On Jan. 27, A. Pearce estmated the comet at about 4.5^m, while on Jan. 29, M. Mattiazzo was able to observe it already at 3^m. The comet showed itself as a strongly condensed object. The pre-outburst brightness wat at about 6^m. (Comets Mailing List)

01/27/2002

M. Meyer reports that he has found an additional member of the connected non-Kreutz comets C/1997 L2 (SOHO) and C/2001 X8 (SOHO). Comet C/2001 E1 (SOHO) had an retrograde orbit based on only seven observations. Meyer suggested that a change of the inclination of 2001 E1 into a direct solution results in the same orbital elements as for the other two comets and represents the observations of the comet with small residuals. This was finally confirmed by B. G. Marsden. Besides the Kreutz group this new group is the only group with more than two members which are scattered over such a long time.

01/22/2002

Michael Jäger was able to photograph comet 96P/Machholz near the horizon at dawn. The comet seemed as bright as 8.5^m and showed a 10' tail. A composite image can be found here. (Comets Mailing List)

01/21/2002

New Discovery!: An asteroidal object, discovered by LINEAR on Jan. 13, 2002, was reported as cometary by J. Nomen (Barcelona), J. Broughton (Reedy Creek), R. Dyvig (Quinn) and R. Fredrick, R. Trentman, and R. Gruenke (Louisburg). The 17^m comet C/2002 A3 (LINEAR) will pass perihelion on May 03, 2002, at about 5.1 AU. It won't become any brighter. LINEAR has now found 72 new comets. (IAUC 7799, MPEC 2002-B18)

01/16/2002

Two further SOHO comets of 2001 were announced: C/2001 Y4 (SOHO) was detected by X. Zhou and C/2001 Y5 (SOHO) by M. Boschat. Both are members of the Kreutz group. SOHO has now discovered 387 new comets. (MPEC 2001-B04)
Five additional SOHO comets received orbits and designations: Comet C/1996 Y2 (SOHO) is an archival find by X. Leprette, C/2001 X8 (SOHO) was detected by A. Mimeev, C/2001 X9 (SOHO) by , and S. Hönig C/2001 Y2 (SOHO) and C/2001 Y3 (SOHO) by X. Zhou. Only C/2001 X8 is not a member of the Kreutz group. C/2001 Y2 and Y3 were another example of a "twin comet", which is often seen with small Kreutz sungrazers. (MPEC 2002-B01) M. Meyer reports that comets C/2001 X8 (SOHO) and C/1997 L2 (SOHO) have almost the same orbital elements although they are not members of the Kreutz group.

01/15/2002

Recovery!: S. Nakano reported on Dec. 25, 2001, that T. Oribe had recovered comet P/1993 K2 (= 1993 XI = 1993l) on Dec. 24, 2001. The comet was 2" away from the prediction of B. G. Marsden in MPC 34423. An independent report came on Jan. 11, 2002, by K. Sarneczky and Z. Heiner. Both observations of the 19.5^m comet P/2001 Y1 (Helin-Lawrence) confirm a tentative single-night detection by C. W. Hergenrother and D. Means of Jan. 23, 2001, then as faint as 21.5^m and of stellar appearance. The comet will pass its second observed perihelion on Dec. 22, 2002, at about 3.1 AU. (IAUC 7790)

01/11/2002

New Discovery!: On Jan 08, 2002, the LINEAR project reported two apparently asteroidal 18^m objects having a similar motion which were separated by <1 degrees. Further observations were obtained after placing both objects on the NEO Confirmation Page. Additional prediscovery observations of Nov. and Dec. 2001, were also found. First orbital calculations showed similar orbits which only differed in the time of perihelion and showed that both objects were only 0.7 AU from Jupiter. The comets C/2002 A1 (LINEAR) and C/2002 A2 (LINEAR) passed perihelion on Dec. 02, and 09, 2001, respectively, at about 4.7 AU. Both move on elliptical orbits with periods of about 76.7 and 78.4 years, respectively. The minimum distance from Jupiter was < 0.4 AU in July 2001. LINEAR has now found 71 new comets. (IAUC 7788, MPEC 2002-A62)

01/10/2002

Four more SOHO comets received orbits and designations: Comet C/2001 X4 (SOHO) was detected by S. Hönig, C/2001 X5 (SOHO) and C/2001 X6 (SOHO) by M. Meyer, and C/2001 X7 (SOHO) by M. Boschat. All are members of the Kreutz group. SOHO has now found 380 comets. (MPEC 2002-A49)

01/09/2002

Comet 96P/Machholz put on a fine display in SOHO/LASCO images and reached a maximum apparent brightness of about -1 mag. A daylight observation by J. Bortle was negative while Venus (almost as close as the comet to the Sun) was visible with -3.9^m. Groundbased observations following its conjunction may be possible in bright morning twilight. With increasing elongation the comets brightness will decrease steeply. (Comets Mailing List)
Comets P/2001 TU₈₀(LINEAR-NEAT) and C/2001 X1 (LINEAR) underwent minor brightness outbursts. The outburst of the first was detected by P. Manteca in December 2001 with an amplitude of about 1^m producing a nice tail and reaching a brightness of about 14^m, and of the latter by R. Naves in January 2002 with an amplitude of about 2^m, reaching 15^m. (Comets Mailing List)
New astrometry for comet P/2001 X2 (Scotti) changed the orbit of this comet considerably: Perihelium was now already in October 2001, at about 2.5 AU. The period is about 7.4 years. (MPEC 2002-A40)

01/07/2002

Comet 96P/Machholz is currently visible in SOHO/LASCO coronagraph images passing its close perihelion. I recommend visiting S. F. Hönig's special page for images, animations and further information.

01/03/2002

The periodic comet 11D/Tempel-Swift received the designation 11P/Tempel-Swift-LINEAR after its re-discovery by LINEAR.