News - February 2000

02/29/2000

New Discovery!: On Dec. 05, 1999, the Catalina Sky Survey discovered an asteroidal object with a cometlike orbit. C. Hergenrother (Lunar and Planetary Laboratory) was now able to detect a small coma. Pre-discovery images by LINEAR of November were also identified. The 17^m comet P/1999 XN₁₂₀ (Catalina) will pass its perihelion on May 01, 2000, in a distance of about 3.3 AU. The orbital period is about 8.5 years. (IAUC 7370, MPEC 2000-D40)
New Discovery!: On Dec. 07, 1999, the LINEAR project discovered an asteroidal object with a cometlike orbit. C. Hergenrother (Lunar and Planetary Laboratory) was again able to detect a small coma. Pre-discovery images of the 18^m comet by LINEAR of November were found, too. The 42^nd comet discovered by LINEAR - P/1999 XB₆₉ (LINEAR) - passed its perihelion on Feb. 17, 2000, in a distance of about 1.6 AU. The orbital period is about 9.5 years. (IAUC 7370, MPEC 2000-D39)
The yesterday by Darren Lewis discovered SOHO sungrazer (SOHO-106) has received an orbit and a designation - C/2000 D1 (SOHO). (IAUC 7370, MPEC 2000-D38)

02/28/2000

New Discovery!: SOHO-106! Darren Lewis discovered a relatively bright sungrazer still far away from the sun today in images of the C3 coronagraph. It is likely a member of the Kreutz group of sungrazing comets. The comet has not yet been announced officially by the CBAT. (Sungrazer Homepage)
New Discovery!: It is SOHO-105! Today this comet was confirmed. It was also seen in LASCO C2 frames and is likely a member of the Kreutz group of sungrazing comets. The discovery was made independently by me and K. Cernis. The comet has not yet been announced officially by the CBAT. (Sungrazer Homepage)

02/26/2000

Today at about 07:30 UT I discovered a probable sungrazing comet in data of the C3 coronagraph. Independent sightings by P. Morel and K. Cernis were reported just after my message to Doug Biesecker. The object still awaits confirmation, probably on Monday. (Sungrazer Homepage)

02/18/2000

New Discovery!: Another apparently asteroidal object was discovered by the LINEAR project on Feb. 02, 2000. J. G. Ries noted the cometary appearance after posting of the object on the NEO Confirmation Page. Pre-Discovery images by LINEAR of Jan. 28, 2000, were also found. The 18^m comet C/2000 CT₅₄ (LINEAR) - the 41^st comet found by LINEAR - will pass its perihelion on Jun. 18, 2001, at about 3.1 AU. (IAUC 7368, MPEC 2000-D10)
New Discovery!: On Jan. 29, 2000, the LINEAR project discovered an apparently asteroidal object whose cometary appearance was noted by P. Kusnirak and D. Balam after posting on the NEO Confirmation Page. Pre-Discovery images by LINEAR of Jan. 02, 2000, were also found. The 18^m comet C/2000 B4 (LINEAR) - the 40^th comet found by LINEAR - has an interesting orbit similar of a centaur asteroid. It will pass perihelion on Jun. 24, 2000, at about 6.8 AU and has an orbital period of about 77 years. (IAUC 7368, MPEC 2000-D09)
New Discovery!: On Nov. 28, 1999, amateur Korado Korlevic (Visnjan, HRV) discovered an apparently asteroidal object of 17^m with a 0.41-m f/4.3 reflector + CCD. He noted a slightly "fuzzy" appearance of the object - designated as minor planet 1999 WJ₇ - in December. C. Hergenrother and S. Larson (Lunar and Planetary Laboratory) were now able to confirm the cometary nature. Comet P/1999 WJ₇ (Korlevic) passed its perihelion on Feb. 15, 2000, at about 3.2 AU and has an orbital period of about 10 years. (IAUC 7368, MPEC 2000-D08)

02/17/2000

Two Kreutz sungrazers, discovered in SOHO C3 images in 1999, have now received orbits and an official designation. Comet C/1999 O1 (SOHO) was discovered by Terry Lovejoy on July 31, 1999, and comet C/1999 P3 (SOHO) by Darren Lewis on Aug. 03, 1999. Both comets were not seen in images of the C2 coronagraph and showed no tail. (IAUC 7367, MPEC 2000-C59, 60)

02/13/2000

Together with the announcement of an orbit comets SOHO-100 through SOHO-104 have now received official designations. Comets C/2000 C3 (SOHO) (former SOHO-102) and C/2000 C4 (SOHO) (former SOHO-101) have identical orbits with a difference in perihelion time of 0.6 days. Comets C/2000 C2 (SOHO) (former SOHO-100) and C/2000 C5 (SOHO) (former SOHO-103) have nearly identical orbits (under the assumption of the same perihelion distance for C/2000 C5 as of C/2000 C2) and may also be related to each other. Only comet C/2000 C6 (SOHO) (former SOHO-104) is a member of the Kreutz group. The brightness of the five objects ranged between 5^m and 8^m. (IAUC 7364, MPEC 2000-C50...54)

02/09/2000

New Discovery!: Terry Lovejoy discovered SOHO-104, a sungrazing Kreutz fragment, on Feb. 09, 2000, in C3 frames. I spotted it when it already showed a short tail, 5 hours after Terry. It has still some way to go, so it might become a nice small comet in the C3 and C2 frames. (Sungrazer Homepage)

02/08/2000

New Discovery!: Michael Oates discovered a fourth object in SOHO C2 images of Feb. 07, which also seems to be linked to the previous three. All four objects are moving on almost similar trajectories. Orbital calculations are currently being carried out, however, due to the very short arc for all objects of the "swarm", there may even be no orbital solution at all. The objects got the following internal designation: SOHO-100 (discovered by Kazimieras Cernis), SOHO-101 (by Maik Meyer), SOHO-102 (by Doug Biesecker) and SOHO-103 (by Michael Oates). (Sungrazer Homepage, ESA Press Release, SOHO Hotshot, e-mail)

02/06/2000

New Discovery!: Carl Hergenrother (Lunar and Planetary Laboratory) discovered a new comet on Feb. 04, 2000, with the 0.41-m Schmidt telescope at Catalina. Numerous observers were able to confirm the cometary appearance of the 17^m comet. Prediscovery observations by LINEAR of Jan. 04, and 08, 2000, were also found. The first orbit for comet P/2000 C1 (Hergenrother) shows a perihelion on Mar. 18, 2000, at about 2.1 AU. The comet is a short period one with a P of about 6.7 years. (IAUC 7357, MPEC 2000-C30)

02/05/2000

20:30 UT In addition to my discovery I received the information that Doug Biesecker has discovered a second object which moves almost on the same trajectory as the object which was discovered by me! The object discovered by Doug Biesecker in data from Feb. 04, leads the second one by about 14 hours.
09:00 UT I have just discovered another probable SOHO comet visible in the C2 data. It is definitely no Kreutz comet. There is also a unconfirmed discovery of Kazimieras Cernis (Lithuania) of another non Kreutz comet in SOHO C2 data from Feb. 03, 2000. More about both discoveries later. These would be comets SOHO-101 and SOHO-100, respectively.

02/02/2000

New Discovery!: Another apparently asteroidal object, discovered on Jan. 27, 2000, by the LINEAR project, was identified as a comet after placement on the NEO Confirmation Page by P. Kusnirak (Ondrejov) and F. Zoltowski (Edgewood, NM). The 39^th LINEAR-comet P/2000 B3 (LINEAR) is as bright as 18.5^m. The first orbit indicates a perihelion on Feb. 14, 2000, at about 1.7 AU. It is a periodic comet with a P of about 8.0 years. Although not far from earth the comet isn't very bright, so that it must be intrinsically faint. (IAUC 7356, MPEC 2000-C06)
New Discovery!: On Jan. 29, 2000, the LINEAR project discovered its 38^th comet. Initially appearing asteroidal, the object was identified as cometary after placement on the NEO Confirmation Page by P. Kusnirak (Ondrejov) and M. Tichy and Z. Moravec (Klet). The first orbit for the 18.5^m comet C/2000 B2 (LINEAR) indicates a perihelion on Nov. 10, 1999, at about 3.8 AU. (IAUC 7354, MPEC 2000-C04)

02/01/2000

New Discovery!: The comet I discovered yesterday simultaneously with Terry Lovejoy is SOHO-99. It is a very faint one and faded while approaching the sun. The comet has not yet been announced officially by the CBAT. (Sungrazer Homepage)