News - October 2007

2007 October 24

New permanent numberings: 192P/Shoemaker-Levy = P/2007 T3 = P/1990 V1 and 193P/LINEAR-NEAT = P/2007 U2 = P/2001 Q5. (IAUC 8888, subscription required)

2007 October 24

OUTBURST!
Comet 17P/Holmes, nominally now at about 16^m has undergone a major outburst. The first detection was obviously by A. Henriquez Santana (Tenerife) on Oct. 24.067, at about 8.4^m nuclear magnitude. Further confirmatory observations proved the comet still rising in brightness. Currently the comet is about 3^m visually and appears almost stellar. Close monitoring is strongly encouraged.
The comet was discovered in 1892 by Edwin Holmes under similar circumstances, when the comet was found suddenly as a 4^m object. After that it faded by 3^m over the following week but experienced another outburst 75 days later. (IAUC 8886, subscription required, Comets Mailing List)

2007 October 23

Further astrometry allowed the identification of two periodic comets: C/2007 S2 (Lemmon) is of intermediate period with P = 43.9 years. Perihelion will be passed on Sep. 16, 2008, at about 5.6 AU.
P/2007 T4 (Gibbs) is a short-periodic comet with P = 11.5 years. Perihelion occurred already on Jul. 19, 2007, at about 2.0 AU. (MPEC 2007-U65, MPEC 2007-U68)

2007 October 22

New Discovery!: An apparently asteroidal object, discovered on Oct. 19, 2007, in the course of the LINEAR survey has been found to be cometary after posting on the NEO Confirmation Page by G. Sostero, E. Guido, and V. Gonano (Remanzacco), K. Sarneczky and L. L. Kiss (Siding Spring) and L. Buzzi (Varese). The 18^m comet C/2007 U1 (LINEAR) will pass perihelion according to the first and preliminary orbit on Aug. 07, 2008, at about 3.3 AU. This is the 180^th comet for LINEAR. (IAUC 8884, subscription required, MPEC 2007-U53)
New Discovery!: K. Sarneczky and L. L. Kiss report their recovery of comet P/2001 Q5 on Oct. 21, and 22, 2007, at Siding Spring. The 19.5 - 20^m comet P/2007 U2 (LINEAR-NEAT) will pass perihelion on Feb. 20, 2008, at about 2.2 AU. The period is about 6.7 years. (IAUC 8885, subscription required)
With more astrometry comet 2007 T6 was identified as a short-period comet. Comet P/2007 T6 (Catalina) passed perihelion on Aug. 17, 2007, at about 2.2 AU. The period is about 8.8 years. (MPEC 2007-U45)

2007 October 20

Further SOHO comets (all named SOHO):

Designation  Group   Discoverer     Notes
C/2004 E5    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 K21   Kreutz  K. Battams
C/2007 N4    Kreutz  H. Su
C/2007 N5    Kreutz  H. Su
C/2007 N6    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 N7    Kreutz  K. Battams
C/2007 N8    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 O3    Kreutz  H. Su
C/2007 O4    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 Q4    Kreutz  S. Yuan
C/2007 Q5    Kreutz  A. Kubczak
C/2007 Q6    Kreutz  H. Su
C/2007 Q7    Kreutz  H. Su
C/2007 Q8    Kreutz  H. Su, R. Kracht
C/2007 Q9    Kreutz  J. Sachs
C/2007 R6    Kreutz  H. Su
C/2007 R7    Kreutz  H. Su
C/2007 R8    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 R9    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 R10   Meyer   A. Kubczak     79^th member of the Meyer group
C/2007 S3    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 S4    Kreutz  M. Uchina

Official SOHO comets: 1357 (MPEC 2007-U23, MPEC 2007-U24, MPEC 2007-U34, MPEC 2007-U35, MPEC 2007-U36)

2007 October 17

Further SOHO comets (all named SOHO):

Designation  Group   Discoverer     Notes
C/2007 M4    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 M5       -    B. Zhou
C/2007 M6    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 M7    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 M8       -    H. Su
C/2007 M9    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 M10   Kreutz  B. Zhou

Official SOHO comets: 1335 (MPEC 2007-U15, MPEC 2007-U16)

2007 October 16

Further SOHO comets (all named SOHO):

Designation  Group   Discoverer     Notes
C/2007 L6    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 L7    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 L8    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 L9    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 L10   Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 L11   Kreutz  T. Hoffman
C/2007 L12   Kreutz  R. Matson
C/2007 L13   Kreutz  A. Kubczak

Official SOHO comets: 1328. (MPEC 2007-T117, MPEC 2007-T122)

2007 October 15

New Discovery!: A. R. Gibbs reports his discovery of a new comet on Oct. 12, 2007, in the course of the Catalina Sky Survey. R. A. Kowalski (Mt. Lemmon) confirmed the comet one day later. After posting on the NEO Confirmation Page J. Young (Table Mountain) was able to confirm the cometary nature of the 18.5^m object. The first and preliminary parabolic orbit for comet C/2007 T4 (Gibbs) shows perihelion already on Aug. 11, 2007, at about 2.2 AU. This is the 51^st comet for the Catalina Sky Survey and the 8^th for Gibbs. (IAUC 8880, subscription required, MPEC 2007-T113)
New Discovery!: A. R. Gibbs reports his discovery of another new comet on Oct. 13, 2007, in the course of the Catalina Sky Survey. Again R. A. Kowalski (Mt. Lemmon) confirmed the comet one day later. After posting on the NEO Confirmation Page J. Young (Table Mountain) was able to confirm the cometary nature of the 18^m object. The first and preliminary parabolic orbit for comet C/2007 T5 (Gibbs) shows perihelion on Feb. 13, 2008, at about 4.4 AU. This is the 52^nd comet for the Catalina Sky Survey and the 9^th for Gibbs. (IAUC 8880, subscription required, MPEC 2007-T114)
New Discovery!: An apparently asteroidal object discovered on Oct. 13, 2007, in the course of the Catalina Sky Survey has been found to be cometary by J. Young (Table Mountain) after posting on the NEO Confirmation Page. The first and preliminary parabolic orbit for the 17^m comet C/2007 T6 (Catalina) indicates perihelion already on Aug. 24, 2007, at about 2.4 AU. This is the 53^rd comet for the Catalina Sky Survey. (IAUC 8881, subscription required, MPEC 2007-T115)

2007 October 12

Further SOHO comets (all named SOHO):

Designation  Group   Discoverer     Notes
C/2007 K19   Kreutz  R. Kracht
C/2007 K20   Kreutz  T. Hoffman
C/2007 L1    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 L2    Kreutz  K. Battams
C/2007 L3    Kreutz  S. Yuan
C/2007 L4    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 L5    Kreutz  A. Watson

Official SOHO comets: 1320. (MPEC 2007-T93, MPEC 2007-T94)

2007 October 14

Recovery!: R. H. McNaught reports his recovery of comet P/1990 V1 (Shoemaker-Levy) (=1990o = 1990 XV) on Oct. 12, and 13, 2007, in the course of the Siding Spring Survey. The corection to the prediction on MPC 51824 was dT = +4.5 days. The 18^m comet P/2007 T3 (Shoemaker-Levy) will brighten by about 1 magnitude and pass perihelion on Dec. 17, 2007. (IAUC 8878, subscription required)

2007 October 11

New Discovery!: R. A. Kowalski reports his discovery of a new comet on Oct. 9, 2007, in the course of the Catalina Sky Survey. After posting on the NEO Confirmation Page G. Sostero and E. Guido (Remanzacco), L. Buzzi (Varese), D. T. Durig (Sewanee) and J. E. McGaha (Tucson) were able to confirm the cometary nature of the 16.5^m object. The first and preliminary orbit for comet P/2007 T2 (Kowalski) shows perihelion already on Sep. 19, 2007, at about 0.7 AU. The period is about 5.9 years. The comet has a very low absolute magnitude. This is the 50^th comet for the Catalina Sky Survey and the 3^rd for Kowalski. (IAUC 8878, subscription required, MPEC 2007-T76)

Further SOHO comets (all named SOHO):

Designation  Group   Discoverer     Notes
C/2007 J8    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 J9    Kreutz  S. Yuan
C/2007 J10   Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 J11   Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 J12   Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 K7    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 K8    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 K9    Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 K10   Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 K11   Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 K12   Meyer   H. Su          78^th member of the Meyer group
C/2007 K13   Kreutz  T. Hoffman
C/2007 K14   Kreutz  B. Zhou
C/2007 K15   Kreutz  R. Kracht
C/2007 K16   Kreutz  H. Su
C/2007 K17   Kreutz  T. Hoffman
C/2007 K18   Kreutz  M. Meyer

Official SOHO comets: 1313. (MPEC 2007-T56, MPEC 2007-T57, MPEC 2007-T77, MPEC 2007-T78)

2007 October 10

New Discovery!: R. H. McNaught reports his discovery of a new comet on Oct. 9, 2007, in the course of the Siding Spring Survey. The object was described as bright (about 12.5^m with a coma diameter of 2'). After posting on the NEO Confirmation Page L. Donato and V. Gonano (Remanzacco), E. Pettarin, G. Lombardi, and L. Bittesini (Farra d'Isonzo), F. Hormuth (Heidelberg-Königstuhl), M. Tichy, M. Honkova, and J. Ticha (Klet) and P. Birtwhistle (Great Shefford) were able to confirm the cometary nature. Alan Hale obtained a visual estimate of 11.7^m. The first orbit for comet C/2007 T1 (McNaught) is very uncertain. The current solution indicates perihelion on Nov. 23, 2007, at about 0.3 AU. However, solutions with q=1.1 AU are also possible. Further photometric and astrometric observations are needed. The comet experienced most likely an outburst since it should have been detected already in the last months. This is the 42^nd comet for the Siding Spring Survey and the 38^th for McNaught. (IAUC 8877, subscription required, MPEC 2007-T54)

2007 October 3

New Discovery!: An apparently asteroidal object, discovered on Sep. 25, 2007, in the course of the Mt. Lemmon Survey has been found cometary after posting on the NEO Confirmation Page by Q.-z. Ye (Lulin) and J. W. Young (Table Mountain). The first parabolic orbit for the 19^m comet C/2007 S2 (Lemmon) indicates perihelion on Oct. 12, 2007, at about 6.2 AU. The comet is most likely of short or intermediate period. This is the 14^th comet for the Mt. Lemmon Survey. (IAUC 8876, subscription required, MPEC 2007-T11)