240P/NEAT

For other comets discovered by the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking survey, see Comet NEAT (disambiguation).

240P/NEAT

The comet on 12 December 2018 by ZTF
Discovery [1]
Discovered by	Near Earth Asteroid Tracking
Discovery date	December 7, 2002
Designations
MPC designation	P/2002 X2, P/2010 P1
Orbital characteristics [2]
Epoch	March 25, 2020 (2458933.5) [2]
Aphelion	5.605 AU
Perihelion	2.133 AU
Semi-major axis	3.8688 AU
Eccentricity	0.44867
Orbital period	7.61 a 2779.5 d
Inclination	23.505 °
Longitude of ascending node	74.923°
Argument of periapsis	352.025°
Last perihelion	15 May 2018 [2]
Next perihelion	19 December 2025 [3]
TJupiter	2.758
Earth MOID	1.147 AU
Comet total magnitude (M1)	8.9 [2]

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]

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. ^{[4] [5]}

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) ^[2] which reduced the orbital period to 7.6 years and the perihelion distance from 2.5 to 2.1 AU. ^[6] 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, ^[7] 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. ^[8]

References

1. 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. "Small-Body Database Lookup: 240P/NEAT". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 22 August 2025.
3. Yoshida, Seiichi. "240P/NEAT". www.aerith.net. Retrieved 22 August 2025.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Kinoshita, Kazuo. "240P". jcometobs.web.fc2.com. Retrieved 22 August 2025.
7. Sato, H. (August 2017). "Comet 240P/NEAT". Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams (4427): 1. Bibcode:2017CBET.4427....1S.
8. 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 .

Numbered comets
Previous 239P/LINEAR	240P/NEAT	Next 241P/LINEAR