External links
- 243P/NEAT at the JPL Small-Body Database
| Discovery [1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) |
| Discovery date | 24 September 2003 |
| Designations | |
| P/2003 S2, P/2010 P5 | |
| Orbital characteristics [2] [3] | |
| Epoch | 5 May 2025 (JD 2460800.5) |
| Observation arc | 21.92 years |
| Earliest precovery date | 1 August 2003 |
| Number of observations | 782 |
| Aphelion | 5.206 AU |
| Perihelion | 2.448 AU |
| Semi-major axis | 3.827 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.36033 |
| Orbital period | 7.487 years |
| Inclination | 7.645° |
| 87.577° | |
| Argument of periapsis | 283.77° |
| Mean anomaly | 320.96° |
| Last perihelion | 26 August 2018 [4] |
| Next perihelion | 25 February 2026 |
| TJupiter | 2.944 |
| Earth MOID | 1.469 AU |
| Jupiter MOID | 0.604 AU |
| Physical characteristics [5] | |
Mean radius | 0.81–1.55 km (0.50–0.96 mi) |
| 0.04 (assumed) | |
| Comet total magnitude (M1) | 9.9 |
| Comet nuclear magnitude (M2) | 14.8 |
243P/NEAT is a periodic comet currently with a 7.49-year orbit around the Sun.
In 2008, Elena M. Epifani observed the comet while it was inactive at a distance of 4.0 AU (600 million km), where she estimated that the nucleus has an effective radius of 0.81–1.55 km (0.50–0.96 mi), assuming that it has a geometric albedo of 0.04. [5] Yanga R. Fernández estimated a revised upper limit of approximately 0.6 km (0.37 mi) based on Spitzer thermal observations in 2013. [6] Michael S. P. Kelley stated that both results can be simultaneously true if the comet has an axial ratio of a/b > 1.3, [7] which is a modest value for typical cometary nuclei. [8]
