115P/Maury

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115P/Maury
115P 2020-07-27 image ZTF-sso-436-zr-fov-3.5 arcmin.png
Maury's Comet photographed from the Zwicky Transient Facility in 27 July 2020.
Discovery [1]
Discovered by Alain J. Maury
Discovery site Palomar Observatory
Discovery date16 August 1985
Designations
P/1985 Q1, P/1994 J1
  • 1985 VI, 1994 VIII
  • 1985k, 1994h [2]
Orbital characteristics [3] [4]
Epoch 25 February 2023 (JD 2460000.5)
Observation arc 35.39 years
Number of
observations		1,435
Aphelion 6.484 AU
Perihelion 2.059 AU
Semi-major axis 4.272 AU
Eccentricity 0.51796
Orbital period 8.83 years
Inclination 11.677°
176.01°
Argument of
periapsis 		121.00°
Mean anomaly 105.02°
Last perihelion29 July 2020
Next perihelion18 May 2029 [5] [6]
TJupiter 2.736
Earth MOID 1.071 AU
Jupiter MOID 0.495 AU
Physical characteristics [3]
Mean radius
1.11 km (0.69 mi) [7]
0.04 (assumed)
Comet total
magnitude (M1)		13.0
Comet nuclear
magnitude (M2)		15.3

Comet Maury, also known as 115P/Maury, is a Jupiter-family comet with an 8.83-year orbit around the Sun. It is the first of six comets discovered by French astronomer, Alain J. Maury. [a]

Contents

Observational history

Alain J. Maury discovered the comet while examining the photographic plates taken by James M. Schombert on the night of 16 August 1985. [1] At the time, the comet was a diffuse 16th-magnitude object with a short tail located on the constellation Aquarius. [b] Multiple follow-up observations from their colleagues at the Palomar Observatory between 20 and 23 August later confirmed its existence. [8]

Additional observations up to October 1985 helped astronomers to conclude that the orbit of P/1985 Q1 had indicated it is a short-period comet, [9] with an orbital period of roughly 8.84 years. [10]

In 3 May 1994, James V. Scotti successfully recovered the comet from the Kitt Peak Observatory as P/1994 J1. [11] The comet was later observed at the Keck Observatory while it was inactive at aphelion in December 1997, which allowed direct measurements of its nucleus to be conducted. [7] [12]

The comet was also observed during its 2002 and 2011 apparitions. [6] A small apparent outburst was detected from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) during its 2020 apparition, where the comet temporarily brightened by 0.3 magnitudes between 19 and 23 June. [13]

Orbit

115P/Maury completes an orbit around the Sun roughly once every 8.83 years, inclined about 11.68 degrees from the ecliptic. [4] Orbital calculations have shown that the comet is currently in a stable 4/3 resonance with Jupiter, where it had remained within the past few thousand years. [14] Additional computations revealed that before 115P was locked into this resonance, it is likely a centaur with an orbit beyond Saturn, where multiple encounters with Jupiter had brought itself down to its present-day orbit. [15]

Physical characteristics

The nucleus of the comet has a radius of about 1.11 km (0.69 mi) based on observations by the Keck Observatory, assuming a geometric albedo of 0.04. [7]

In July 2011, while it was 2.146 AU (321.0 million km) from the Sun, it was determined that 115P/Maury ejects a total mass of 6.9×107 kg of material per year, indicating a mass loss rate of 2.1 kg/s (4.6 lb/s). [16] This is similar to those from what was also observed from 157P/Tritton and 373P/Rinner, where these comets produce fairly weak activity on each apparition. [16]

Notes

  1. ↑ As of 2025, 115P remains the only comet that Alain J. Maury had independently discovered. All other five were co-discovered with either J. Phinney or Georges Attard
  2. ↑ Reported initial position upon discovery was: α = 21h 52.7m, δ = –1° 17′ [8]

References

  1. 1 2 A. Maury; C. Kowal; J. Schombert (6 September 1985). B. G. Marsden (ed.). "Comet Maury (1985k)". IAU Circular. 4102 (1). Bibcode:1985IAUC.4102....1K.
  2. ↑ "Comet Names and Designations". International Comet Quarterly. Retrieved 17 October 2025.
  3. 1 2 "115P/Maury – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory . Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  4. 1 2 "115P/Maury Orbit". Minor Planet Center . Retrieved 17 June 2014.
  5. ↑ "Horizons Batch for 115P/Maury (90000993) on 2029-May-18" (Perihelion occurs when rdot flips from negative to positive). JPL Horizons . Retrieved 6 July 2023. (JPL#43 Soln.date: 2023-May-03)
  6. 1 2 S. Yoshida. "115P/Maury". www.aerith.net. Retrieved 18 October 2025.
  7. 1 2 3 K. J. Meech; O. R. Hainaut; B. G. Marsden (2004). "Comet nucleus size distributions from HST and Keck telescopes". Icarus. 170 (2): 463–491. Bibcode:2004Icar..170..463M. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2004.03.014.
  8. 1 2 G. W. Kronk; M. Meyer; D. A. J. Seargent (2017). Cometography: A Catalog of Comets. Vol. 6: 1983–1993. Cambridge University Press. pp. 158–159. ISBN   978-0-521-87216-4.
  9. ↑ J. Schombert; R. Windhorst; C. Kowal (9 September 1985). B. G. Marsden (ed.). "Comet Maury (1985k)". IAU Circular. 4105 (1). Bibcode:1985IAUC.4105....1S.
  10. ↑ J. Gibson; G. Schwartz; C. Y. Shao (13 September 1985). B. G. Marsden (ed.). "Periodic Comet Maury (1985k)". IAU Circular. 4107 (2). Bibcode:1985IAUC.4107....2G.
  11. ↑ J. V. Scotti (4 May 1994). D. W. Green (ed.). "Periodic Comet Maury (1994h)". IAU Circular. 5984 (1). Bibcode:1994IAUC.5984....1S.
  12. ↑ G. W. Kronk. "115P/Maury". Cometography.com. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  13. ↑ M. S. P. Kelley; Q. Ye; D. Bodewits (1 July 2020). "Small apparent outburst of comet 115P/Maury". The Astronomer's Telegram. 13836: 1. Bibcode:2020ATel13836....1K.
  14. ↑ D. Benest; R. Gonczi (1993). "Stochasticity of Two Comets in Resonance with Jupiter". Celestial Mechanics & Dynamical Astronomy. 57 (1–2): 109–112. Bibcode:1993CeMDA..57..109B. doi:10.1007/BF00692466.
  15. ↑ D. Benest; R. Gonczi; A. J. Maury (1993). "Dynamics of Comet P/Maury". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 271: 621–629. Bibcode:1993A&A...271..621B.
  16. 1 2 F. J. Pozuelos; F. Moreno; F. Aceituno; V. Casanova; A. Sota; et al. (2014). "Dust environment and dynamical history of a sample of short-period comets" (PDF). Astronomy & Astrophysics. 568: 3–16. arXiv: 1406.6220 . Bibcode:2014A&A...568A...3P. doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/201423762 .
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