News - December 2005

2005 December 27

Upon a suggestion from Z. Sekanina and P. W. Chodas, and R. Kracht, B. G. Marsden was able to link the Marsden group comets C/1999 U2 (SOHO) and C/2005 W5 (SOHO). The resulting period is about 6.1 years. (MPEC 2005-Y27)

2005 December 23

Further SOHO comet discoveries (all named SOHO):

Designation  Group   Discoverer  Notes
C/2005 W13   Kreutz  T. Scarmato 
C/2005 W14   Kreutz  T. Scarmato
C/2005 W15   Kreutz  H. Su

Official SOHO comets: 1061. (MPEC 2005-Y22)

2005 December 22

Further SOHO comet discoveries (all named SOHO):

Designation  Group   Discoverer  Notes
C/2005 W6    Kreutz  T. Scarmato 
C/2005 W7    Kreutz  W. Xu
C/2005 W8    Kreutz  J. Ruan
C/2005 W9    Meyer   H. Su       63^rd member of the Meyer group
C/2005 W10   Kreutz  T. Hoffman
C/2005 W11   Meyer   H. Su       64^th member of the Meyer group
C/2005 W12   Kreutz  Q. Ye

Official SOHO comets: 1058. (MPEC 2005-Y14, MPEC 2005-Y15)

2005 December 20

Further SOHO comet discoveries (all named SOHO):

Designation  Group   Discoverer  Notes
C/2005 V8    -       H. Su       possibly related to C/2005 H7
C/2005 V9    Kreutz  H. Su
C/2005 Y1    -       S. Farmer

Official SOHO comets: 1051. (MPEC 2005-Y07)

2005 December 17

Further SOHO comet discoveries (all named SOHO):

Designation  Group   Discoverer  Notes
C/2005 U7    Kreutz  Q. Ye
C/2005 U8    Kreutz  H. Su
C/2005 V2    Kreutz  H. Su
C/2005 V3    Kreutz  H. Su
C/2005 V4    Kreutz  T. Scarmato
C/2005 V5    Kreutz  R. Matson
C/2005 V6    Kreutz  H. Su
C/2005 V7    Kreutz  H. Su

Official SOHO comets: 1048. (MPEC 2005-Y02, MPEC 2005-Y03)

2005 December 10

Further SOHO comet discoveries (all named SOHO):

Designation  Group   Discoverer  Notes
C/2005 T9    Meyer   H. Su       62nd member of the Meyer group
C/2005 T10   Kreutz  H. Su
C/2005 T11   Kreutz  T. Hoffman
C/2005 U2    Kreutz  H. Su
C/2005 U3    Kreutz  H. Su
C/2005 U4    Kreutz  H. Su
C/2005 U5    Kreutz  T. Scarmato
C/2005 U6    Kreutz  B. Zhou

SOHO comets: 1040. (MPEC 2005-X52)

2005 December 9

New Discovery!: E. C. Beshore reports his discovery of a new comet on Dec. 7, 2005, in the course of the Catalina Sky Survey. The 18^m comet was confirmed after posting on the NEO Confirmation Page by S. Gajdos and J. Vilagi (Modra) and G. Hug (Eskridge). The first orbit for comet C/2005 X1 (Beshore) shows perihelion on Sep. 30, 2005, at about 3.3 AU. This is the 26^th comet discovery by Catalina. (IAUC 8642, subscription required, MPEC 2005-X51)

2005 December 04

The 25^th member of the Kracht group was detected by B. Zhou. C/2005 W4 (SOHO) was then successfully linked to C/2000 3 (SOHO) by B. G. Marsden. The 23^rd member of the Marsden group was detected by H. Su and designated C/2005 W5 (SOHO). Official SOHO comets: 1032. (MPEC 2005-X14)

2005 December 03

An apparently asteroidal object discovered already on Dec. 31, 2004, by the LINEAR survey and designated 2004 YJ₃₅, has been found to be cometary S. S. Sheppard on Nov. 30, and Dec. 1, 2005, with the Dupont 2.5-m reflector at Las Campanas. Perihelion for comet C/2004 YJ₃₅ (LINEAR) ocurred already on Mar. 3, 2005, at about 1.8 AU. This is LINEARs 164^th comet discovery. (IAUC 8637, subscription required, MPEC 2005-A47, MPEC 2005-X12)
E. J. Christensen has detected a fragment of comet 101P/Chernykh on Nov. 30, 2005. Further confirmatory images were obtained on Dec. 1, and 2. The 18^m object moves about 21.5' ahead of the primary component, which is about 2.5^m brighter. The distance corresponds to a difference in perihelion time of about -0.9 day. Comet 101P has been observed to be split already in 1991, however, it is assumed that the now observed fragment is not identical to the 1991 one. (IAUC 8637, subscription required)

Further SOHO comet discoveries (all named SOHO):

Designation  Group   Discoverer  Notes
C/2005 S12   Kreutz  H. Su
C/2005 S13   Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2005 T6    Kreutz  H. Su
C/2005 T7    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2005 T8    Kreutz  H. Su

SOHO comets: 1030. (MPEC 2005-X11)

2005 December 01

Further astrometry and prediscovery images by the Catalina Sky Survey of Sep. 30, 2005, have lead to a revised orbit for comet 2005 W3 which indicates that it is of short period. P/2005 W3 (Kowalski) passed perihelion already on Aug. 23, 2005, at about 3.0 AU. The period is about 16.2 years. (MPEC 2005-W90)