News - June 2003

06/25/2003

New Discovery!: An apparently asteroidal object, discovered on April 26, 2003, by the LINEAR survey, with prediscovery images back to Jan. 27, and designated 2003 HT₁₅, was found to be cometary by C. Hergenrother (Mount Hopkins). The 18.5^m comet P/2003 HT₁₅ (LINEAR) passed perihelion on April 17, 2003, at about 2.7 AU. The period is about 9.9 years. This is the 112^th comet discovery by LINEAR. (IAUC 8156)
Comets 42P/Neujmin 3 and 43P/Wolf-Harrington have been recovered. 42P was imaged by J. Pittichova (Mauna Kea) at about 22.5^m on May 27, and 28, 2003. The comet will pass perihelion in July 2004. 43P was recovered by S. Sanchez, R. Stoss, and J. Nomen (Mallorca) on June 17, and 18, 2003, at about 17^m. The comet will pass perihelion in March 2004.

06/22/2003

From June 04 - 06, 2004, the Third International Workshop on Cometary Astronomy (IWCA III) will take place in Paris, France. A First Announcement has been published by the Organising Committees and encourages comet observers to take part and contribute papers/posters for the workshop. Earlier such IWCAs were held in Selvino, Italy, in 1994, and in Cambridge, England, in 1999.
Additional astrometry of comet C/2003 K1 (Spacewatch) by A. Nakamura (Kuma Kogen, Japan) and S. Sanchez, R. Stoss, and J. Nomen (Mallorca) shows that this comet is of intermediate period with P of about 320 years. (MPEC 2003-M24)

06/20/2003

With further observations and prediscovery images of April 2002, and April 2003, a new orbit for comet 2003 L1 was calculated which confirmes the short periodic nature of this comet. Perihelion for comet P/2003 L1 (Scotti) was in March 2003, at about 5.0 AU. The period is about 17.3 years. (IAUC 8153, MPEC 2003-M19 MPEC 2003-M21)

06/14/2003

New Discovery!: An apparently asteroidal object, discovered on June 12, 2003, by the LINEAR survey was found to be cometary in follow-up observations by S. Sanchez, R. Stoss, and J. Nomen (Mallorca) and S. Gajdos (Modra). The 18^m comet C/2003 L2 (LINEAR) will pass perihelion according to the first and preliminary orbital elements in February 2004, at about 2.3 AU. This is the 111^th comet discovery by LINEAR. (IAUC 8151, MPEC 2003-L55)

06/08/2003

New Discovery!: J. V. Scotti (LPL) reports the discovery of a new comet on June 04, 2003, in the course of the Spacewatch survey. The 18.5^m comet C/2003 L1 (Scotti) is very probably of short peroid. The first, parabolic orbit indicates a perihelion already in January 2002, at about 2.7 AU. This is the 21^st comet discovery by Spacewatch. (IAUC 8145, MPEC 2003-L33)
More astrometry shows that comet 2003 K2 is indeed a short period comet as initially suspected. P/2003 K2 (Christensen) has a period of about 6.5 years and a perihelion distance of about 0.55 AU. (IAUC 8145, MPEC 2003-L31)

06/04/2003

A new, drastically changed orbit for comet C/2003 K4 (LINEAR) now shows a perihelion in October 2004 in a distance of about 1.1 AU. The comet may then become as bright as 5^m but is unfortunately badly placed on the opposite side of the sun. Nevertheless the comet can be observed visually from mid-European latitudes prior perihelion starting in autumn 2003 until September 2004 when it may have reached 6^m. It will then be observable in the SOHO/LASCO coronagraphs. After that it is a southern hemisphere object. (MPEC 2003-L08)