240P/NEAT

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240P/NEAT
240P 2018-12-12 image ZTF-sso-669-zr-fov-7.0arcmin.png
The comet on 12 December 2018 by ZTF
Discovery [1]
Discovered by Near Earth Asteroid Tracking
Discovery dateDecember 7, 2002
Designations
P/2002 X2, P/2010 P1
Orbital characteristics [2]
Epoch November 21, 2025 (2461000.5)
Aphelion 5.602 AU
Perihelion 2.122 AU [3]
2.116 AU (240P-B) [4]
Semi-major axis 3.861 AU
Eccentricity 0.4506
Orbital period 7.59 a
2772 d
Inclination 23.54°
74.91°
Argument of
periapsis 		352.08°
Last perihelion15 May 2018 [5]
Next perihelion19 December 2025 [3] [6]
21 December 2025 (240P-B) [7] [4]
TJupiter 2.758
Earth MOID 1.147 AU [5]
1.13 AU (240P-B)
Physical characteristics
Comet total
magnitude (M1)		10.3 [5]
14.0
(2025-10-01)

240P/NEAT is a periodic Jupiter-family comet with an orbital period of 7.61 years. It was discovered by Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) on 7 December 2002. [1]

Contents

The comet will come to opposition on 22 November 2025, and then perihelion on 19 December 2025 when it should be around magnitude 12-13. [6]

Observational history

The comet at discovery had an apparent magnitude of 18.4, and further observations revealed it had a coma about 8 arcseconds across and a tail 14 arcseconds long. [1] The comet was spotted in prediscovery images dating from 5 October and 6 December by LONEOS and from 5 November by NEAT. Based on these observations it was recognised it is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 8.1 years. [1] The comet was recovered independently by H. Taylor, H. Sato, L. Elenin, and T. Yusa on 9, 10, 11, and 11 August 2010 respectively, at an estimated magnitude of around 17. [8] [9]

The comet had a close approach to Jupiter on 10 July 2007 at a distance of 0.252 astronomical units (37,700,000 km; 23,400,000 mi) [5] which reduced the orbital period to 7.6 years and the perihelion distance from 2.5 to 2.1 AU. [10] The comet experienced three events of significant brightening which last for three to six months during its next two perihelia, on March-April 2011, July-August 2018, [11] and on November-December 2018. The events more likely are the result of the warming of previously insulated material due to the reduction of the perihelion distance. The new activity takes place in one or two locations of the nucleus. [12]

240P-B

On 3 October 2025 fragment 240P-B was imaged by Kitt Peak and reported by V. Carvajal. [7] 240P-B should come to perihelion on 21 December 2025, [4] about 27 hours after the main body and about 0.006 AU (900 thousand km; 560 thousand mi) closer to the Sun.


References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Lawrence, K. J.; Bambery, R.; Helin, E.; Pravdo, S.; Hicks, M.; Thicksten, R.; Ticha, J.; Tichy, M.; Holvorcem, P.; Zoltowski, F. B.; Marsden, B. G. (December 2002). "Comet P/2002 X2 (NEAT)". International Astronomical Union Circular (8029): 1. Bibcode:2002IAUC.8029....1L. ISSN   0081-0304.
  2. ↑ "240P/NEAT Orbit". Minor Planet Center . Retrieved 29 September 2025.
  3. 1 2 "Horizons Batch for 240P/NEAT (90001202) on 2025-Dec-19" (Perihelion occurs when rdot flips from negative to positive). JPL Horizons. Archived from the original on 2025-10-03. Retrieved 2025-09-25. (Soln.date: 2025-Sep-22)
  4. 1 2 3 "Horizons Batch for 240P-B (90001203) on 2025-Dec-21" (Perihelion occurs when rdot flips from negative to positive). JPL Horizons . Retrieved 2025-10-10. (Soln.date: 2025-Oct-06)
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Small-Body Database Lookup: 240P/NEAT". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 22 August 2025.
  6. 1 2 Yoshida, Seiichi. "240P/NEAT". www.aerith.net. Retrieved 22 August 2025.
  7. 1 2 "MPEC 2025-T124 : COMET 240P-B/NEAT". Minor Planet Center . Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  8. ↑ Taylor, H.; Sato, H.; Elenin, L.; Yusa, T.; Kadota, K.; Nakano, S.; Williams, G. V. (August 2010). "Comet P/2010 P1 (NEAT)". International Astronomical Union Circular (9159): 2. Bibcode:2010IAUC.9159....2T. ISSN   0081-0304.
  9. ↑ Kadota, K.; Bambery, R.; Helin, E.; Pravdo, S.; Hicks, M.; Lawrence, K.; Thicksten, R.; Bouma, R. J.; Sato, H.; Yusa, T.; Elenin, L.; Williams, G. V. (August 2010). "P/2002 x2 (neat) = P/2010 P1". Minor Planet Electronic Circulars. 2010-P51. Bibcode:2010MPEC....P...51K. ISSN   1523-6714.
  10. ↑ Kinoshita, Kazuo. "240P". jcometobs.web.fc2.com. Retrieved 22 August 2025.
  11. ↑ Sato, H. (August 2017). "Comet 240P/NEAT". Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams (4427): 1. Bibcode:2017CBET.4427....1S.
  12. ↑ Kelley, Michael S. P.; Bodewits, Dennis; Ye 叶, Quanzhi 泉志; Farnham, Tony L.; Bellm, Eric C.; Dekany, Richard; Duev, Dmitry A.; Helou, George; Kupfer, Thomas; Laher, Russ R.; Masci, Frank J.; Prince, Thomas A.; Rusholme, Ben; Shupe, David L.; Soumagnac, Maayane T.; Zolkower, Jeffry (20 November 2019). "Comet 240P/NEAT Is Stirring". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 886 (1): L16. arXiv: 1911.02383 . Bibcode:2019ApJ...886L..16K. doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab53e0 .
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