News - December 1999
12/27/1999
- New Discovery!:
On Dec. 20, 1999, the LINEAR project
discovered an asteroidal object with unusual motion which was found to be cometary
after placement on the NEO Confirmation Page. According to the first orbit comet
C/1999 Y1 (LINEAR) (the 36th comet of LINEAR) will pass its
perihelion at the end of March 2001 at about 3.2 AU. The currently 16m
comet may reach 12m - 13m in 2000/2001. (IAUC 7338, MPEC
1999-Y28)
12/21/1999
- New Discovery!:
Angelos Vourlidas discovered the 94th SOHO comet in data of the C2
coronagraph aboard the SOHO spacecraft
on Dec. 21, 1999. The comet has not yet been announced officially by the CBAT.
(Sungrazer Homepage)
12/12/1999
- New Discovery!:
The amateurs Gary Hug and Graham E. Bell (Eskridge, KS, USA) discovered a new comet
on Dec. 10, 1999, using their 0.30-m Schmidt-Cassegrain + CCD in the course of their
minor planet search and follow-up program. After finding prediscovery images taken by
LINEAR on Oct. 10, and Dec. 07, 1999, a
first orbit could be computed. Comet P/1999 X1 (Hug-Bell) is about
18m and passed its perihelion on June 20, 1999, at about 1.9 AU. The
comets period is about 7 years. (IAUC 7331, MPEC 1999-X24)
12/10/1999
- On Dec. 02, 1999, the
LONEOS
program discovered an asteroidal object travelling in an unusual orbit that is
similar to that of a long-period comet. The asteroid 1999 XS35
has a period of about 79 years and has already passed its perihelion at a distance
of about 0.95 AU. No sign of a coma could be detected for the 16m-object.
(MPEC 1999-X19)
12/05/1999
- New Discovery!: IAUC 7327 reports the unusual discovery of a comet by
T. Makinen (Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki) in data of the
SWAN (Solar Wind ANisotropies)
instrument aboard the SOHO spacecraft
of May. 20, 1997. Comet C/1997 K2 was detected by the SWAN photometer from
its hydrogen Lyman-alpha emission on full-sky images in the wavelength range of
10-180 nm. Since the appearance is comparable to that of comet C/1997 O1 (Tilbrook)
in SWAN images of the same time the brightness is estimated to be about
10m - 12m. The observations - spanning a time from May to
July 1997 - indicate a perihelion distance of about 1.5 AU which was reached at the
end of June 1997. The comet reached its brightness maximum in July 1997 with
estimated 11m but was then far south. Before and after the perihelion
passage the comet had only small elongations to the sun. (IAUC 7327, MPEC 1999-X07)
12/02/1999
-
Further astrometric observations of comet P/1999 V1 (Catalina) indicate a
short period nature. It passed its perihelion in October 1999 at about 3.0 AU and
has a period of about 19.3 years. (IAUC 7323)