External links
- 136P/Mueller at the JPL Small-Body Database
- 136P/Mueller 3 at Seiichi Yoshida's website
- 136P/Mueller 3 at Gary W. Kronk's Cometography
| Discovery [1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Jean Mueller |
| Discovery site | Palomar Observatory |
| Discovery date | 24 September 1990 |
| Designations | |
| P/1990 S1 P/1998 K4 | |
| |
| Orbital characteristics [2] [3] | |
| Epoch | 5 May 2025 (JD 2460800.5) |
| Observation arc | 34.27 years |
| Earliest precovery date | 17 September 1990 [4] |
| Number of observations | 712 |
| Aphelion | 5.415 AU |
| Perihelion | 2.963 AU |
| Semi-major axis | 4.189 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.29313 |
| Orbital period | 8.562 years |
| Inclination | 9.427° |
| 137.42° | |
| Argument of periapsis | 225.31° |
| Mean anomaly | 13.998° |
| Last perihelion | 3 January 2025 |
| TJupiter | 2.934 |
| Earth MOID | 1.986 AU |
| Jupiter MOID | 0.264 AU |
| Physical characteristics [5] | |
Mean radius | 1.15 km (0.71 mi) |
| 0.04 (assumed) | |
| Comet total magnitude (M1) | 7.4 |
| Comet nuclear magnitude (M2) | 14.3 |
136P/Mueller, also known as Mueller 3, is a periodic comet in the Solar System.
Jean Mueller discovered the comet on exposed photographic plates taken by the Palomar Observatory on the night of 24 September 1990. [1] At the time, it was a diffuse 18th-magnitude object in the constellation Cetus. [a] Within a couple of days after discovery, Harold Holt found precovery images taken as early as 17 September. [4] Orbital calculations by Edward L. G. Bowell and Daniel W. E. Green later indicated that Mueller's new find is a periodic comet. [7]
James V. Scotti later successfully recovered the comet in 24 May 1998. [8]
Assuming a geometric albedo of 0.04, the comet's nucleus is estimated to have an effective radius of 1.2 ± 0.2 km (0.75 ± 0.12 mi). [9]
