News - March 2004
2004 Mar 31
-
New Discovery!:
The LINEAR survey reports the discovery
of a new comet on Mar 25, 2004. The 18.5m comet C/2004 F2 (LINEAR)
already passed perihelion in December 2003, at about 1.4 AU. This is LINEARs
135th comet discovery.
(IAUC 8313,
MPEC 2004-F81)
-
New Discovery!:
The NEAT survey reports the discovery of
a new comet on Mar 28, 2004. Prediscovery observations of Mar 15 (LINEAR), and
Mar 21 (Spacewatch), were found, too. The 16m comet
P/2004 F3 (NEAT) will pass perihelion in January 2005, at about 2.9 AU.
It has a period of about 8.1 years. The comet passed about 0.4 AU from Jupiter
in July 2001, perturbing it into its new orbit. This is the 43rd comet
for NEAT.
(IAUC 8313,
MPEC 2004-F82)
-
New Discovery!:
R. H. McNaught reports cometary activity for an initially asteroidal object,
discovered on Feb 03, by LINEAR survey
and designated 2004 CB. The 17.5m comet P/2004 CB (LINEAR)
passes perihelion on April 02, 2004, at about 0.9 AU. It has a period of about
5 years. This is LINEARs 136th comet discovery.
(IAUC 8314,
MPEC 2004-F96)
2004 Mar 20
-
New Discovery!:
The discovery of a new comet on Mar. 18, in the course of the
NEAT survey was reported by M. Hicks. Prediscovery
observations of Feb. 16, and Mar. 14, 2004, by LINEAR were found, too. The comet
was also observed by the Catalina Sky Survey on Mar. 18. The 19m comet
P/2004 F1 (NEAT) passed perihelion already in October 2003, at about 2.5 AU.
It has a period of about 9.4 years. This is the 42nd comet for NEAT.
(IAUC 8309,
MPEC 2004-F39)
-
Further SOHO backlog comets
(all Kreutz group) found by R. Kracht (except C/2003 K8): C/2003 J8 (SOHO),
C/2003 J9 (SOHO), C/2003 K7 (SOHO), C/2003 K8 (SOHO)
(by D. Evans) and C/2003 K9 (SOHO). Current official SOHO score:
621 comets.
(IAUC 8309,
MPEC 2004-F29)
2004 Mar 17
-
New Discovery!:
An apparently asteroidal object discovered on Feb. 17, 2004, by
Spacewatch and
LINEAR, with prediscovery observations
by LONEOS of
Feb 11, 2004, and designated 2004 DO29, was found to be cometary by S.
S. Sheppard, Y. R. Fernandez, and D. Jewitt with the University of Hawaii 2.2-m
reflector. The 19.5m comet P/2004 DO29 (Spacewatch-LINEAR)
will pass perihelion in October 2004, at about 4.1 AU. It has a period of about
20.4 years. This is the 23rd comet for Spacewatch and the
134th for LINEAR.
(IAUC 8305,
MPEC 2004-D45,
MPEC 2004-F09)
2004 Mar 12
2004 Mar 01
-
Further astrometry for comet C/2004 C1 (Larsen) shows this comet to be
periodic with a P of about 39 years. Perihelion at about 4.4 AU was already
in March 2003.
(MPEC 2004-E07)
-
Another two apparently asteroidal objects moving in comet-like orbits have been
discovered recently: 2004 DZ61 was found by LINEAR on Feb. 19,
2004. The 18.5m object has a perihelion distance of about 2.0 AU, an
eccentricity of about 0.96 and a period of 303 years. 2004 DA62
was found also by LINEAR on Feb. 25, 2004. The 19m object has a
perihelion distance of about 4.2 AU, an eccentricity of about 0.48 and a period of
about 22.6 years. Until now no sign of cometary activity has been reported.
(MPEC 2004-E02,
MPEC 2004-E03)