News - October

10/29/2002

New Discovery!: On Oct 14, 2002, the LINEAR survey discovered an asteroidal object. P. Birtwhistle (Great Shefford, U.K.) was able to detect a small coma which was confirmed later by T. B. Spahr (Mt. Hopkins). The 16.5^m comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) will pass perihelion according to the first and preliminary orbit in April 2004, at about 0.6 AU. The comet may then reach naked eye visibility nearly the same time as C/2001 Q4 (NEAT). For mid-European observers this comet is conveniently placed until February 2004. After that it is mainly a southern hemisphere target. LINEAR has now found 97 comets. (IAUC 8003, MPEC 2002-U43)
New Discovery!: On Oct 04, 2002, the NEAT survey and on Oct. 7, the LINEAR survey discovered an asteroidal object which was placed on the NEO CP. P. Birtwhistle (Great Shefford, U.K.) was able to detect a small coma which was confirmed later by T. B. Spahr (Mt. Hopkins). The 18.5^m comet P/2002 T6 (NEAT-LINEAR) will pass perihelion according to the first and preliminary orbit in June 2003, at about 3.4 AU. The period is about 21 years. LINEAR has now found 96 comets, NEAT 27. (IAUC 8002, MPEC 2002-U42)

10/27/2002

New Discovery!: On Oct 25, 2002, the LINEAR project discovered a new comet. The 15^m comet C/2002 U2 (LINEAR) will pass perihelion according to the first and preliminary orbit in January 2003, at about 1.15 AU. It may become as bright as 13 - 14^m. LINEAR has now found 95 comets. (IAUC 8000, MPEC 2002-U33)

10/23/2002

New Discovery!: An apparently asteroidal object, discovered on Oct 05, 2002, by the LINEAR project was posted on the NEO Confirmation Page due to its unusual motion. D. T. Durig and J. A. K. Blackwood (University of the South, Sewanee, TN) and G. Hug (Eskridge, KS) were then able detect a small coma and a short tail. The 17^m comet P/2002 T5 (LINEAR) will pass perihelion according to the first and preliminary orbit in July 2003, at about 3.9 AU. The period is about 18.5 years. The comet will become only slightly brighter in the coming months. LINEAR has now found 94 comets. (IAUC 7998, MPEC 2002-U20)

10/21/2002

C/2002 U1 (SOHO) is a Kreutz group comet found by X. Leprette. SOHO has now found 529 comets. (MPEC 2002-U08)

10/19/2002

Further images of comet C/2002 O4 (Hönig) illustrating the mentioned shape of the comet were taken by Yuuji Ohshima (Kiso-Fukushima, Nagano, Japan) on Oct. 11, and 16. (e-mail, Comets Mailing List)

10/18/2002

Comet C/2002 O4 (Hönig) has faded rapidly and may have disintegrated. K. Kadota (Ageo, Saitama, Japan) imaged this comet on Oct. 10.82 UT, as a diffuse glow of about 13.3^m showing the typical shape of a disintegrating comet. On an image taken two nights later by Y. Ezaki (Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan) the comet was not found down to 15^m. (IAUC 7995, e-mail)

10/13/2002

Recovery!: On Oct 11, 2002, NEAT discovered a new comet. The object was confirmed by several observers and with the help of pre-discovery observations by LINEAR of Oct. 4, and 9, the comet was announced as the new periodic comet P/2002 T4 (NEAT). Only hours later it was reported that K. Muraoka was able to identify this new comet with the long-lost periodic comet 54P/de Vico-Swift seen only three times (1844, 1894 and 1965). The correction to the prediction was about -7.5 days. The comet passed 0.16 AU from Jupiter in 1968. 54P is now about 19^m and passed perihelion already in July 2002, at about 2.1 AU. The period is about 7.3 years. The comet seems to have been renamed as 54P/de Vico-Swift-NEAT. (IAUC 7991, IAUC 7992, MPEC 2002-T76, e-mail)

10/12/2002

Another six SOHO comets received orbits and designations. C/2002 S8 (SOHO) (found by D. Evans), C/2002 S9 (SOHO) (S. Hönig), C/2002 S10 (SOHO) (M. Boschat) and C/2002 T3 (SOHO) (M. Oates) are members of the Kreutz group. C/2002 S11 (SOHO) (T. Scarmato) is the 14^th member of the Kracht group, which now contains as many members as the Marsden group. C/2002 T2 (SOHO) (X. Leprette) is the 33^rd member of the Meyer group. SOHO has now found 528 comets. (MPEC 2002-T75)

10/06/2002

Another two SOHO comets received orbits and designations. C/2002 S6 (SOHO) was found by M. Oates and is a member of the Kreutz group. C/2002 S7 (SOHO) was detected by R. Matson and is the 13^th member of the Kracht group. SOHO has now found 522 comets. (MPEC 2002-T25)

10/05/2002

New Discovery!: On Oct 03, 2002, the LINEAR project discovered a new comet. After posting the object on the NEO Confirmation Page several observers were able to confirm the cometary nature. The 15^m comet P/2002 T1 (LINEAR) will pass perihelion according to the first and preliminary orbit on Oct. 8, 2002, at about 1.2 AU. The period is about 6.4 years. Since the comet is now closest to Earth with about 0.2 AU it is an intrinsically faint object. The comet won't become brighter in the next weeks. LINEAR has now found 93 comets. (IAUC 7983, MPEC 2002-T15)
Two SOHO comets received orbits and designations. C/2002 S4 (SOHO) and C/2002 S5 (SOHO) are both members of the Kracht group which now has 12 members. The comets were found by R. Matson and R. Kracht, respectively. SOHO has now found 520 comets. (MPEC 2002-T16)