News - August 2007

2007 August 31

New Discovery!: An apparently asteroidal object, discovered by Alan C. Gilmore (Mt. John Obs., New Zealand) on Aug. 22, 2007, has been found cometary after posting on the NEO Confirmation Page by K. Sarneczky and L. L. Kiss (Siding Spring) and Q.-z. Ye and C.-S. Lin (Lulin Obs., Taiwan). The object was also found by the LINEAR survey earlier on the same day. The first orbit for the 18.5^m comet P/2007 Q2 (Gilmore) indicates perihelion on Aug. 23, 2007, at about 1.8 AU. The period is about 13.3 years. The object has a very low absolute magnitude. (IAUC 8865, subscription required, MPEC 2007-Q43)
New Discovery!: An apparently asteroidal object, discovered by Donna M. Burton on Aug. 25, 2007, in the course of the Siding Spring Survey, has been found cometary after posting the object on the NEO Confirmation Page by K. Sarneczky and L. L. Kiss (Siding Spring) and N. Teamo and J. C. Pelle (Punaauia, Tahiti). The first and preliminary orbit for comet C/2007 Q3 (Siding Spring) indicates perihelion on Oct. 19, 2009, at about 2.3 AU. This is the 40^th comet for the Siding Spring Survey. The comet may reach 10^m in 2009 and 2010. (IAUC 8865, subscription required, MPEC 2007-Q44)

2007 August 25

New Discovery!: G. J. Garradd reports his discovery of a new comet on Aug. 21, 2007, in the course of the Siding Spring Survey. After posting the object on the NEO Confirmation Page N. Teamo and S. F. Hönig (Punaauia, Tahiti), L. Ligustri (Talmassons), L. Buzzi and F. Luppi (Varese) and A. C. Gilmore (Mt. John) were able to confirm the conmetary nature of the 19^m object. The first and very preliminary orbit for comet C/2007 Q1 (Garradd) indicates perihelion already on Dec. 6, 2006, at about 2.8 AU. This is the 39^th comet for the Siding Spring Survey and the 6^th for Garradd. (IAUC 8863, subscription required, MPEC 2007-Q20)

2007 August 10

New Discovery!: R. H. McNaught reports his discovery of a new comet on Aug. 07, 2007, in the course of the Siding Spring Survey. After posting the object on the NEO Confirmation Page J. Broughton (Reedey Creek) confirmed the cometary nature of the 18^m and very diffuse object. The first and very preliminary orbit for comet C/2007 P1 (McNaught) indicates perihelion already on Mar. 26, 2007, at about 0.6 AU. This is the 38^th comet for the Siding Spring Survey and the 37^th for McNaught. (IAUC 8861, subscription required, MPEC 2007-P23)

2007 August 03

Permanent numberings for short-period comets: P/2007 N2 = P/2002 O5 is 189P/NEAT, P/2007 O2 = P/1998 U2 is 190P/Mueller (MPC 60237). (IAUC 8860, subscription required)
Comet C/2007 O1 (LINEAR) was identified by S. Nakano with an object with the asteroidal designation 2006 GA₃₈. The comet was observed as an 18.5^m asteroidal object on Apr. 02, 2006, in the course of the LONEOS survey and on Apr. 09, 2006, in the course of the Catalina survey.