| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (644) [1] |
| Discovery date | November 5, 2004 |
| Designations | |
| 2004 V4 | |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch | February 10, 2012 (JD 2455967.5) (Uncertainty=2) [2] |
| Aphelion | 5.470 AU (Q) |
| Perihelion | 2.056 AU (q) |
| Semi-major axis | 3.763 AU (a) |
| Eccentricity | 0.4535 |
| Orbital period | 7.30 yr |
| Inclination | 12.71° |
| Last perihelion | August 5, 2019 [3] [4] April 12, 2012 [3] January 31, 2005 [5] |
| Next perihelion | 2026-Nov-24 [4] |
163P/NEAT is a periodic comet discovered on November 5, 2004 by Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) using the 1.2 meter Samuel Oschin telescope at Palomar Observatory. [1]
Precovery images of the comet were found by Maik Meyer in December 2004. [6] There were two images from 1997, two images from 1991, and three images from 1990. [7]
During the 2005 perihelion passage the comet brightened to an apparent magnitude of about 16. [8]
Around November 17, 2114, the comet will pass about 0.117 AU (17,500,000 km ; 10,900,000 mi ) from Jupiter. [9]