News - November 1999
11/25/1999
- New Discovery!:
Doug Biesecker discovered a very faint sungrazing comet (the 92nd comet
discovered by SOHO) in data of the C2 coronagraph aboard the
SOHO spacecraft on Nov. 23, 1999. The
comet has not yet been announced officially by the CBAT.
(Sungrazer Homepage)
11/23/1999
-
A part of issue 3 (Vol. 77) of the journal EARTH MOON AND PLANETS deals with
comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp). Besides reports on the size of the comets
nucleus, its origin and chemical composition, a report on the detection of a
companion of the comets main nucleus is given. The abstracts can be found
here.
(CCNet)
11/21/1999
-
C. W. Hergenrother and S. Larson (Lunar and Planetary Laboratory) report about CCD
observations of comet 10P/Tempel 2 with the Steward Observatory 2.3-m
reflector by Hergenrother on Nov. 13, 1999. These show a shell-like jet-arc coma
structure. Further observations over a time span of 1.5 h did reveal no obvious
changes of this structure. A processed image can be found
here. (IAUC 7313)
11/09/1999
-
A first and preliminary orbit for comet C/1999 V1 (Catalina) indicates the
perihelion on Sep. 15, 1999 at about 3.1 AU. (IAUC 7305, MPEC 1999-V29)
11/06/1999
- New Discovery!:
C. W. Hergenrother (Lunar and Planetary Laboratory) reports the discovery of
a 17m comet in the course of the
Catalina Sky Survey on Nov. 05, 1999.
No orbit is available yet for comet 1999 V1. (IAUC 7302)
- A new orbit for comet 1999 U3 indicates a short-period nature. Comet
P/1999 U3 (LINEAR) passed its perihelion on Nov. 05, 1999, at about 1.9 AU.
The period is about 12.5 years. (IAUC 7302, MPEC 1999-V17)
- S. Nakano reports observations of comet 63P/Wild 1 which was not observed
at its last apparition in 1986. The comet is about 16m. These observations
confirm a single-night detection by C. W. Hergenrother on Feb. 14, 1999, at about
22m. The correction to the prediction is about -0.35 days. The comet will
pass its perihelion on Dec. 27, 1999, and become as bright as about 14m -
15m. (IAUC 7302, MPEC 1999-V18)
11/04/1999
- On Oct. 03, 1999, the Spacewatch project
discovered an unusual asteroidal ocject. The 19m faint asteroid 1999 TD10
moves on a long-period orbit (P about 1900 years) with a perihelion distance of about 11.6
AU. No signs of a coma have been observed yet. (MPEC 1999-T46, V07)
11/02/1999
- R. H. McNaught (Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Siding Spring
Observatory, AUS) was able to observe another component of comet 141P/Machholz 2
that split in 1994. Independent observations were also reported by A. Sugie (Dynic Observatory,
JAP). Brian Marsden was able to link these observations with the component D of 1994 without
using nongravitational forces. The observations by Michael Jäger and Gerald Rhemann
(cf. News of Nov. 01, 1999) belong also to the component D, which is now brighter than
component A and has currently a distance of about 7' to it. (IAUC 7299)
- New Discovery!:
T. B. Spahr (Lunar and Planetary Laboratory) reports the discovery of a slow moving object
in the course of the Catalina Sky Survey on
Oct. 31, 1999. One day later this object was independently discovered by B. A. Skiff in the
course of the LONEOS
program. Further observations by R. L. Millis and L. H. Wasserman as well as by M. Tichy and
Z. Moravec (Klet, SLK) revealed a small coma. Comet C/1999 U4 (Catalina-Skiff) is
about 17m and will pass its perihelion according to the first and very
preliminary orbit in September 2001 in a distance of about 4.8 AU and may reach about
14m. (IAUC 7298, MPEC 1999-V04)
11/01/1999
- Michael Jäger and Gerald Rhemann obtained first photographic images of comet
141P/Machholz 2, which split in 1994, showing the comet at about
13m. The images can be found on the
Homepage (in German) of both well-known
astro-photographers. (WWW)
- New Discovery!:
R. Huber reports the discovery of the 35th comet of the
LINEAR program on Oct. 30, 1999. Comet
C/1999 U3 (LINEAR) is about 16.5m and passed its perihelion
according to the first orbit already on Sep. 12, 1999, at about 1.8 AU. (IAUC 7295,
7296)
- New Discovery!:
Doug Biesecker discovered the faint sungrazer SOHO-91 in data of the C3 coronagraph
aboard the SOHO spacecraft on Oct. 31,
1999. The comet has not yet been announced officially by the CBAT.
(Sungrazer Homepage)