News - November
11/27/2002
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Four SOHO comets received orbits and designations: C/2002 U6 (SOHO) is the
34th 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
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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
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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
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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 18m
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
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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 18m 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
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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 2m 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 13m
object in early December as an evening object until early February 2003 with maybe 8m.
After that the comet is too close to the Sun.
(IAUC 8011,
MPEC 2002-V31,
Comets Mailing List)
11/07/2002
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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 16m 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)