News - November

11/27/2002

Four SOHO comets received orbits and designations: C/2002 U6 (SOHO) is the 34^th Meyer group comet and was found by R. Kracht. C/2002 U7 (SOHO) (R. Matson), C/2002 U8 (SOHO) (X. Leprette) and C/2002 U9 (SOHO) (S. Hönig) are members of the Kreutz group. SOHO has now found 538 comets. (MPEC 2002-W42)

11/23/2002

Three SOHO comets received orbits and designations: C/1999 O4 (SOHO) is an archival non-group comet found by R. Kracht. C/2002 U4 (SOHO) was found by S. Hönig and C/2002 U5 (SOHO) by R. Kracht. Both comets are members of the Kreutz group. SOHO has now found 534 comets. (MPEC 2002-W34)

11/16/2002

Two SOHO comets received orbits and designations: C/1999 M4 (SOHO) is an archival find by M. Oates made in 2000, which was then not confirmed due to the lack of enough poitions but with additional positions found by R. Kracht received a full confirmation. C/2002 U3 (SOHO) was found by S. Hönig. Both comets are members of the Kreutz group. SOHO has now found 531 comets. (MPEC 2002-V79)

11/15/2002

Two most interesting asteroidal objects moving on cometary orbits have been discovered by the LINEAR survey on Nov. 05, and 11, 2002, respectively. A/2002 VP₉₄ is about 18^m and moves on an elliptical orbit with a period of about 8 years and a perihelion distance of about 1.5 AU which will be reached in January 2003. A/2002 VQ₉₄ is slightly fainter and has a period of about 115 years with a perihelion distance of about 8 AU. Currently the object is about 9.8 AU distance from the Sun. Close monitoring of both objects for cometary activity might be worth. (MPEC 2002-V70, MPEC 2002-V71)

11/09/2002

New Discovery!: On Nov 05, 2002, the LINEAR survey discovered an apparently asteroidal object which was placed on the NEO CP. M. Tichy (Klet) and P. R. Holvorcem and M. Schwartz (Tenagra II) detected a small coma. According to the first and very preliminary elements the 18^m comet C/2002 V2 (LINEAR) will pass perihelion in January 2003, at about 6.9 AU. LINEAR has now found 98 comets. (IAUC 8013, MPEC 2002-V48)

11/08/2002

The first and preliminary orbit for comet C/2002 V1 (NEAT) is very interesting. According to it this comet will pass perihelion on Feb. 18, 2003, at about 0.1 AU. Unfortunately this comet seems to be intriniscally faint and the standard formula gives as maximum brightness maybe 2^m when very close to the Sun and not observable. Nevertheless it should be bright enough to be seen in SOHO/LASCO C3. This also means that this comet is below the empirical Bortle limit for the survivability of comets with q<=0.5 AU so it seems possible that the comet will not even reach perihelion. For mid-European observers C/2002 V1 should become visible as a 13^m object in early December as an evening object until early February 2003 with maybe 8^m. After that the comet is too close to the Sun. (IAUC 8011, MPEC 2002-V31, Comets Mailing List)

11/07/2002

New Discovery!: On Nov 06, 2002, the NEAT survey reported the discovery of a new comet. After posting the object on the NEO CP several observers were able to confirm this 16^m comet. No orbit is available yet for 2002 V1; a search ephemeris can be generated on the NEO Confirmation Page. NEAT has now found 28 comets. (IAUC 8010)