News - July 2004

2004 July 17

An asteroidal object, discovered on July 13, by the Siding Spring Survey, has been found to be moving on a cometary orbit. The asteroid 2004 NN₈ has a perihelion distance at about 2.3 AU which will be reached in October 2004. The 18^m (R-band) object has (according to the available data without using any constraints) a period of about 350 years and an inclination of about 165 degrees. The MPC orbit assumes a lower eccentricity and receives a period of about 58 years. Further monitoring - especially with large telescopes - is neccessary to detect any cometary activity of the interesting object. (MPEC 2004-O09)
Further SOHO comets: Kreutz group: C/2004 L3 (SOHO) (B. Zhou), C/2004 L4 (SOHO) (X.-M. Zhou), C/2004 L5 (SOHO) (X.-M. Zhou), C/2004 L6 (SOHO) (R. Kracht), C/2004 L7 (SOHO) (R. Kracht), C/2004 L8 (SOHO) (K. Cernis) and C/2004 L9 (SOHO) (X.-M. Zhou). C/2004 L10 (SOHO) (R. Kracht) belongs to the Kracht group, which now consists of 24 members. Current official SOHO score: 802 comets. (MPEC 2004-O04, MPEC 2004-O05)

13.07.2004

The Edgar Wilson Award for 2003/04 was divided among Vello Tabur (Wanniassa, Australia) for C/2003 T3 (Tabur) and William A. Bradfield (Yankalilla, Australia) for C/2004 F4 (Bradfield). (IAUC 8372)

2004 July 03

Further SOHO backlog comets: Kreutz group: C/2004 J14 (SOHO) (T. Hoffman), C/2004 J19 (SOHO) (D. Evans), C/2004 K4 (SOHO) (R. Kracht), C/2004 K5 (SOHO) (X.-M. Zhou), C/2004 K6 (SOHO) (M. Boschat), C/2004 K7 (SOHO) (D.-H. Chen), C/2004 K8 (SOHO) (M. Meyer), C/2004 K9 (SOHO) (V. Bezugly), C/2004 K10 (SOHO) (M. Meyer), C/2004 K11 (SOHO) (X.-M. Zhou) and C/2004 K12 (SOHO) (R. Kracht). C/2004 J12 (SOHO) (R. Kracht), C/2004 J13 (SOHO) (R. Kracht), C/2004 J15 (SOHO) (R. Kracht), C/2004 J16 (SOHO) (T. Hoffman), C/2004 J17 (SOHO) (R. Kracht) and C/2004 J18 (SOHO) (R. Kracht) belong to the Kracht group, which now consists of 23 members. The SOHO backlog is now cleared, all recent comets should be announced in batches within 4-8 weeks after discovery. Current official SOHO score: 794 comets. (MPEC 2004-N04, MPEC 2004-N05, MPEC 2004-N16, MPEC 2004-N17, IAUC 8365, IAUC 8366, IAUC 8367)