News - November 2006

2006 November 24

New Discovery!: R. E. Hill reports his discovery of a new comet on Nov. 22, 2006, in the course of the Catalina Sky Survey. After posting on the NEO Confirmation Page the 19.5^m object was confirmed several observers, including G. Hug (Eskridge) and P. Birtwhistle (Great Shefford). Pre-discovery images by LINEAR of Nov. 19, and 22, were also identified. The first and preliminary orbit for comet P/2006 W4 (Hill) indicates perihelion on Feb. 28, 2008, at about 4.5 AU. The period is about 16.5 years. This is the 40^th comet for the Catalina Sky Survey. (IAUC 8779, subscription required, MPEC 2006-W67)

Further SOHO comets (all named SOHO):

Designation  Group   Discoverer     Notes
C/2006 S12   Kreutz  R. Matson
C/2006 S13   Kreutz  H. Su 
C/2006 T2    Kreutz  R. Matson
C/2006 T3    Kreutz  H. Su
C/2006 T4    Kreutz  G. Sun, T. Chen
C/2006 T5    Kreutz  W. Xu
C/2006 T6    ------  B. Zhou
C/2006 T7    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2006 T8    Kreutz  T. Hoffman
C/2006 T9    Kreutz  T. Hoffman

Official SOHO comets: 1202. (MPEC 2006-W64, MPEC 2006-W65)

2006 November 21

New Discovery!: E. J. Christensen (LPL) reports his discovery of a new comet on Nov. 18, 2006, in the course of the Catalina Sky Survey. After posting on the NEO Confirmation Page the 18^m object was confirmed by L. Buzzi and F. Luppi (Varese), P. Birtwhistle (Great Shefford), J. McGaha (Tucson) and J. G. Ries (McDonald Observatory). The first and very preliminary orbit for comet C/2006 W3 (Christensen) indicates perihelion in Dec. 2008, at about 1.5 AU. The comet might then reach 8^m. However, orbits with smaller and larger perihelion distances are still possible.
This is the 39^th comet for the Catalina Sky Survey and the 15^th for Christensen. (IAUC 8777, subscription required, MPEC 2006-W42)

2006 November 20

Recovery!: E. J. Christensen (LPL) reports the recovery of comet P/2001 WF₂ (LONEOS) on Nov. 18, and 19, 2006, in the course of the Catalina Sky Survey. The 19.5^m comet appeared stellar. Comet P/2006 W2 (LONEOS) will pass perihelion on Feb. 6, 2007, at about 1.0 AU. (IAUC 8776, subscription required)

2006 November 18

New Discovery!: A. R. Gibbs reports his discovery of a new comet on Nov. 16, 2006, in the course of the Catalina Sky Survey. The comet was confirmed by S. Larson (Mt. Lemmon). After posting on the NEO Confirmation Page the 18.5^m comet was additionally confirmed by other observers including P. Birtwhistle (Great Shefford) and J. G. Ries (McDonald Observatory). Comet C/2006 W1 (Gibbs) already passed perihelion according to the first and preliminary orbit on May 11, 2006, at about 1.7 AU. This is Catalina's 38^th comet discovery. (IAUC 8775, subscription required, MPEC 2006-W22)

2006 November 15

New Discovery!: An apparently asteroidal object, discovered on Nov. 11, 2006, in the course of the Catalina Sky Survey has been found to be cometary in follow-up observations by E. J. Christensen (LPL, Catalina) on Nov. 12. After posting on the NEO Confirmation Page the 18^m comet was confirmed by J. Young (Table Mountain) and R. A. Kowalski (Mt. Lemmon). Comet C/2006 V1 (Catalina) will pass perihelion according to the first and preliminary orbit on Nov. 24, 2007, at about 3.1 AU. This is Catalina's 37^th comet discovery. (IAUC 8774, subscription required, MPEC 2006-V63)
Z. Sekanina (JPL) reports that a preliminary inspection of the astrometric observations by C. E. Woodward et al. from Nov. 7 of a detached-coma feature (cf. news of Nov 12), show that this is a compact cluster of sizable nucleus fragments which were released from the primary at the time of the recent outburst. (CBET 738, subscription required)

2006 November 12

C. E. Woodward and M. S. Kelley (Univ. of Minnesota) and P. M. Hinz, M. A. Kenworthy, and W. F. Hoffman (Steward Obs., Univ. of Arizona) report the detection of a "detached-coma feature" 3".4 from the nuclear condensation of comet C/2006 M4 (SWAN) (about 2700 km at a geocentric distance of 1.10 AU). This was detected in 10.55-micron narrow-band images taken with the 6.5-m MMT telescope (+ MIRAC4-BLINC) and adaptive optics (AO) secondary on Nov. 7.08 UT, 2006. (IAUC 8722, subscription required)
New permanent periodic comet numberings: 179P/Jedicke, 180P/NEAT and 181P/Shoemaker-Levy.

2006 November 09

Further astrometry showed comet 2006 U5 to be of short period. P/2006 U5 (Christensen) will pass perihelion on Dec. 9, 2006, at about 2.4 AU. The period is about 7.6 years. (MPEC 2006-V25)