News - January 2000
01/31/2000
-
23:00 UT: I have just discovered - almost simultaneous with Terry Lovejoy (Australia) -
another possible sungrazing Kreutz fragment on SOHO C3 images. More news about it tommorow
evening.
01/30/2000
- New Discovery!:
On Jan. 29, 2000, I discovered the 98th
SOHO comet in data of the C3 coronagraph
aboard the SOHO spacecraft. The tailless comet brightened at first but became fainter the
nearer it came to the sun. The comet has not yet been announced officially by the CBAT.
Jonathan Shanklin reports the independent discovery of SOHO-98 by Michael Oates on Jan. 30.
(Sungrazer Homepage,
BAA Comet Section Homepage)
01/25/2000
- New Discovery!:
Jonathan Shanklin discovered the 97th
SOHO comet in data of the C3
coronagraph aboard the SOHO spacecraft on Jan. 24, 2000. Comet C/2000 B1 (SOHO) is
a member of the Kreutz group of
sungrazing comets. The brightness of the comet increased from about 7m to
5m. (Sungrazer Homepage, IAUC
7349, MPEC 2000-B22)
01/24/2000
The LINEAR project discovered two asteroidal
objects which move on very comet-like orbits on Jan. 05, and 08, 2000, respectively.
The asteroid 2000 AB229 moves in a long elliptical orbit with a period
of about 402 years, an eccentricity of about 0.96 and a perihelion distance of about 2.3
AU. The object 2000 AC229 has a period of about 8.8 years, an eccentricity
of about 0.57 and a perihelion distance of about 1.8 AU. Both objects were as bright as
about 18m. No coma has been detected yet. (MPEC 2000-B20,21)
01/18/2000
- New Discovery!:
Doug Biesecker discovered the 96th
SOHO comet in data of the C3
coronagraph aboard the SOHO spacecraft on Jan. 18, 2000. The comet is probably
a member of the Kreutz
group of sungrazing comets. The comet has not yet been announced officially by the
CBAT. (Sungrazer Homepage)
01/16/2000
- New Discovery!:
On January 05, 2000, J. Montani (Lunar and Planetary Laboratory) discovered a new
comet on CCD images taken with the 0.90-m Spacewatch telescope (Kitt Peak). Comet
C/2000 A1 (Montani) is about 18m. Astrometry (which included
pre-discovery images by LINEAR of Jan. 04, 2000) revealed a first, still uncertain
but nevertheless interesting orbit. The comet will pass its perihelion on Feb. 28,
2000, at a distance of about 9.8 AU which makes it the (official) comet with the
largest known perihelion distance (95P/Chiron has a q of about 8.5 AU). (IAUC 7346,
MPEC 2000-A46)
01/13/2000
- New Discovery!:
An asteroidal object discovered by the LINEAR
project on Dec. 7, 1999, showed after linkage with further LINEAR observations of
Jan. 6 and 7, 2000, a cometlike orbit with a period of about 73 years. On request
by the MPC M. Tichy and Z. Moravec (Klet, SLK) obtained observations showing a
small coma. Comet C/1999 XS87 (LINEAR) is about 16.5m
and passed its perihelion already on Aug. 6, 1999, at about 2.8 AU. (IAUC 7344,
MPEC 2000-A43)
01/11/2000
- New Discovery!:
K. Cernis (Vilnius, Lithuania) discovered the 95th SOHO comet in data of
the C2 coronagraph aboard the SOHO
spacecraft on Dec. 28, 1999. Images of the 5m comet were also found in
C3 images as well. The orbit shows that this is no Kreutz comet. Comet
C/1999 Y2 (SOHO) passed its perihelion on Dec. 28, 1999, at a distance of
about 0.048 AU. The comet became fainter while approaching the sun and did probably
not survive the perihelion passage. (IAUC 7343, MPEC 2000-A36)
- An orbit for comet C/1998 G3 (SOHO) has been published. It indicates
that this is also no Kreutz comet which passed its perihelion on Apr. 12, 1998, at
about 0.035 AU. (IAUC 7343, MPEC 2000-A37)