Discovery [1] | |
---|---|
Discovered by | Vance Avery Petriew |
Discovery date | 18 August 2001 |
Designations | |
P/2001 Q2, P/2007 A3 | |
Orbital characteristics [2] | |
Epoch | 17 April 2015 |
Aphelion | 5.267 AU |
Perihelion | 0.934 AU |
Semi-major axis | 3.100 AU |
Eccentricity | 0.6988 |
Orbital period | 5.46 years |
Inclination | 13.997° |
214.101° | |
Argument of periapsis | 181.938° |
Last perihelion | 12 July 2023 |
Next perihelion | 26 December 2028 [3] |
TJupiter | 2.750 |
Earth MOID | 0.061 AU |
Comet total magnitude (M1) | 13.6 [2] |
185P/Petriew is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 5.5 years. It was discovered by amateur astronomer Vance Avery Petriew on 18 August 2001. [1]
Vance Avery Petriew discovered the comet visually with a 0.51-m reflector telescope during a star party in Cypress Hills, Canada, on 18 August 2001, while he was searching for the Crab Nebula. [1] He became the third amateur Canadian to discover a comet. [4] Petriew estimated that the comet had an apparent magnitude of 11, a coma about three arcminutes across and no tail. [5] For the discovery V. A. Petriew was awarded the Edgar Wilson Award in 2002. [6] The comet was also observed by other participants of the party. Alan Hale imaged the comet with a CCD on 19 August and estimated the comet had an apparent magnitude of about 13. [5]
The comet continued to brighten during August, reaching magnitude 10. The coma diameter was reported to be 2 to 4 arcminutes. No tail was observed visually, but CCD imaging revealed the presence of a narrow tail. [1] The comet was observed spectographically in September 2001 and was found to have normal production rates of diatomic carbon and water for a Halley-type comet. [7] The comet was quickly found to be periodic, with a period of about 5.5 years. The comet had approached Jupiter to a distance of 0.146 AU (21.8 million km) on 3 July 1982 [2] and as a result its perihelion distance was decreased from 1.37 AU to 1.00 AU. [1]
The comet was recovered on 11 January 2007 by F. Fratev, E. Mihaylova, and A. Kirchev using a 0.25m reflector telescope at Zvezdno Obshtestvo Observatory in Plana, Bulgaria. The comet then had an apparent magnitude of 16.1 and a diffuse coma 0.2 arcminutes across. [8] After recovery, the comet was given the number 185P. [9]
185P/Petriew could be the parent body of a meteor shower that was first observed on 26–27 October 2024 with a radiant in Lyra. [10]
Comet Ikeya–Seki, formally designated C/1965 S1, 1965 VIII, and 1965f, was a long-period comet discovered independently by Kaoru Ikeya and Tsutomu Seki. First observed as a faint telescopic object on 18 September 1965, the first calculations of its orbit suggested that on October 21, it would pass just 450,000 km (280,000 mi) above the Sun's surface, and would probably become extremely bright.
12P/Pons–Brooks is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 71 years. Comets with an orbital period of 20–200 years are referred to as Halley-type comets. It is one of the brightest known periodic comets, reaching an absolute visual magnitude of about 5 in its approach to perihelion. Comet Pons-Brooks was conclusively discovered at Marseilles Observatory in July 1812 by Jean-Louis Pons, and on its next appearance in 1883 by William Robert Brooks. There are ancient records of comets that are suspected of having been apparitions of 12P/Pons–Brooks.
65P/Gunn is a periodic comet in the Solar System which has a current orbital period of 6.79 years. The comet is a short-period comet, orbiting the Sun every 6.79 years inside the main asteroid belt between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter.
121P/Shoemaker–Holt, also known as Shoemaker-Holt 2, is a periodic comet in the Solar System with an orbital period of about 8 years. The comet was discovered by Carolyn S. Shoemaker, Eugene M. Shoemaker, and Henry E. Holt on 9 March 1989. The comet then had an apparent magnitude of 13, was diffuse and had a tail about 2 arcminutes long. It was recovered by James V. Scotti on 29 August 1995 in images obtained as part of the Spacewatch survey.
173P/Mueller, also known as Mueller 5, is a periodic comet in the Solar System with an orbital period of 13.6 years.
13P/Olbers is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 69 years. It fits the classical definition of a Halley-type comet with a period between 20 and 200 years. The comet last passed perihelion 30 June 2024 and it was previously seen in 1956. The next perihelion is in 2094.
C/2007 W1 (Boattini) is a long-period comet discovered on 20 November 2007, by Andrea Boattini at the Mt. Lemmon Survey. At the peak the comet had an apparent magnitude around 5.
122P/de Vico is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 74 years. It fits the classical definition of a Halley-type comet with. It was discovered by Francesco de Vico in Rome on February 20, 1846.
209P/LINEAR is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 5.1 years. The comet has extremely low activity for its size and is probably in the process of evolving into an extinct comet.
125P/Spacewatch is a periodic Jupiter-family comet. It was discovered on September 8, 1991, by Tom Gehrels using the 0.91 m Spacewatch telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory. It was the first comet discovered with the use of a CCD and also the faintest comet upon discovery up to that point. It has a diameter of 1.6 km.
Comet 252P/LINEAR is a periodic comet and near-Earth object discovered by the LINEAR survey on April 7, 2000. The comet is a Jupiter family comet, meaning that it passes quite close to the orbit of Jupiter.
126P/IRAS is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 13.4 years. It was discovered in images taken by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) on 28 July 1983 by J. Davies. The discovery was confirmed with images taken with the 1.2-m Schmidt telescope at Palomar Observatory.
Comet 141P/Machholz or 141P/Machholz 2 is a periodic Jupiter family comet with an orbital period of 5.3 years. It was discovered by Donald Machholz on 13 August 1994. A few days after the discovery a number of condensations were found near the main component of the comet, indicating that the comet had fragmented between 1987 and 1989, during its previous perihelion.
207P/NEAT is a periodic Jupiter-family comet with an orbital period of 7.62 years. It was discovered by Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) on 11 March 2001.
210P/Christensen is a Jupiter family periodic comet with an orbital period of 5.7 years. It was discovered by Eric J. Christensen on 26 May 2003 in images taken by the Catalina Sky Survey and recovered in images obtained by STEREO, the first time a single-apparition comet was recovered by a spacecraft.
NGC 691 is an unbarred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Aries. It is located at a distance of circa 120 million light years from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that NGC 691 is about 130,000 light years across. It was discovered by William Herschel on November 13, 1786.
C/2000 WM1 (LINEAR) is a non-periodic comet discovered by LINEAR on 16 December 2000. The comet brightened to an apparent magnitude of about 2.5.
C/2001 A2 (LINEAR) is a non-periodic comet from the Oort cloud discovered by LINEAR on 15 January 2001. The nucleus of comet split in multible fragments during its perihelion passage. The comet brightened to an apparent magnitude of about 3.
C/2004 F4 (Bradfield) is a non-periodic comet discovered by amateur astronomer William A. Bradfield on 23 March 2004. The comet brightened to an apparent magnitude of about 3.3.
C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) was a sungrazing comet that was discovered by ATLAS-HKO in Hawaii on 27 September 2024. The comet passed its perihelion on 28 October 2024, at a distance of about 0.008 AU from the barycenter of the Solar System, and disintegrated. The comet had a similar orbit to the Kreutz sungrazers, which were created by the fragmentation of a large comet in 1106.