C/1988 A1 (Liller)

C/1988 A1 (Liller)
Discovery
Discovered by	William Liller
Discovery site	Vina del Mar, Chile
Discovery date	11 January 1988
Designations
Alternative designations	1988a, 1988 V
Orbital characteristics
Epoch	26 April 1988 (JD 2447277.5)
Observation arc	184 days
Number of; observations	427
Aphelion	489 AU
Perihelion	0.841 AU
Semi-major axis	245 AU
Eccentricity	0.9988
Orbital period	3,830 years
Inclination	73.322°
Longitude of; ascending node	31.515°
Argument of; periapsis	57.388°
Last perihelion	31 March 1988
TJupiter	0.347
Earth MOID	0.086 AU
Jupiter MOID	1.01 AU
Physical characteristics
Comet total; magnitude (M1)	6.6
Apparent magnitude	5

Last updated January 08, 2025

C/1988 A1 (Liller) is a non-periodic comet discovered on 11 January 1988 by William Liller.^[1] The comet is part of a family of comets, known as the Liller family, which also includes the comets C/1996 Q1 (Tabur), C/2015 F3 (SWAN), C/2019 Y1 (ATLAS), and C/2023 V5 (Leonard).^[3]

Observational history

The comet was discovered by William Liller in two images exposed 30 minutes apart during the PROBLICOM survey on 11 January. He described the comet as diffuse with a coma about one arcminute across and with faint condensation. The presence of the comet was confirmed by T. Cragg and R. H. McNaught. They estimated visually that the comet had an apparent magnitude of 10.2 and a coma 6 arcminutes across.^[1] Upon discovery the comet was located in the constellation of Sculptor, at a solar elongation of 60°, and was located 1.62 AU from the Sun.^[4]

The comet was observed to brighten from mag 10 to mag 9 until the end of January and continued to brighten in February and March, reaching mag. 7 at the end of the month. The comet reached minimum elongation on 13 March, on 25°.^[4] It reached its peak brightness in April. Jacobson spotted the comet with naked eye on April 18. David H. Levy reported that the comet had an apparent magnitude of 4.7 with the naked eye on April 24. In the end of April the tail of the comet was reported to be up to 2–3 degrees long. An antitail 0.2 degrees long was also reported from 21 to 23 April. The comet was fading in May. Closest approach to Earth took place on May 12, 1988, at a distance on 1.22 AU. By the end of May its magnitude was reported to be 7-7.4.^[4]

By July the comet was very faint and diffuse. It was last observed on 12 August 1988, when it had an apparent magnitude of 12 and its coma was 1.3–1.4 arcminutes across.^[4]

Orbit

Brian G. Marsden calculated a parabolic orbit on 17 January 1988 with positions available up to that day which indicated a perihelion date on 31.61 March 1988,^[5] an orbit that proved quite accurate. The first orbit with positions spanning throughout the visibility period was published by Daniel Green in August 1988, taking into account the perturbations of all planets. That orbit had a perihelion date on March 31.11 and a period of about 3833 years.^[4]

After the orbit of comet C/1996 Q1 (Tabur) was calculated, Jost Jahn noticed it had a striking similarity with that of comet C/1988 A1 (Liller), indicating they got separated in a previous perihelion.^[6] Zdenek Sekanina mentioned that they could have been separated in their previous perihelion by non tidal forces.^[7] The following years three more comets were associated with comet Liller, C/2015 F3 (SWAN),^[8] C/2019 Y1 (ATLAS), and C/2023 V5 (Leonard).^[3]

Related Research Articles

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Comet Arend–Roland was discovered on November 6, 1956, by Belgian astronomers Sylvain Arend and Georges Roland on photographic plates. As the eighth comet found in 1956, it was named Arend–Roland 1956h after its discoverers. Because it was the third comet to pass through perihelion during 1957, it was then renamed 1957 III. Finally, it received the standard IAU designation C/1956 R1 (Arend–Roland), with the "C/" indicating that it was a non-periodic comet and the "R1" showing that it was the first comet reported as discovered in the half-month designated by "R". The last is equivalent to the period September 1–15.

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108P/Ciffréo is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 7 years discovered by Jacqueline Ciffréo on November 8, 1985. The comet is noted for having a peculiar double morphology, in which the nucleus is accompanied by a comoving, detached, diffuse tail, which is probably a perspective artifact of particles ejected sunwards and then repelled by solar wind.

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.

205P/Giacobini is a periodic Jupiter-family comet with an orbital period of 6.68 years. It was discovered by Michel Giacobini on 4 September 1896 and then it was lost until it was recovered by Koichi Itagaki on 10 September 2008. The comet was then found to have fragmented into three pieces.

C/2019 Y1 (ATLAS) is a comet with a near-parabolic orbit discovered by the ATLAS survey on 16 December 2019. It passed perihelion on 15 March 2020 at 0.84 AU from the Sun. Its orbit is very similar to C/1988 A1 (Liller), C/1996 Q1 (Tabur), C/2015 F3 (SWAN) and C/2023 V5 (Leonard), suggesting they may be fragments of a larger ancient comet.

C/2021 A1 (Leonard) was a long period comet that was discovered by G. J. Leonard at the Mount Lemmon Observatory on 3 January 2021 when the comet was 5 AU (750 million km) from the Sun. It had a retrograde orbit. The nucleus was about 1 km across. It came within 4 million km (2.5 million mi) of Venus, the closest-known cometary approach to Venus.

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 multiPLe fragments during its perihelion passage. The comet brightened to an apparent magnitude of about 3.

C/2023 V5 (Leonard) was discovered on 6 November 2023 by the Catalina Sky Survey. It came to perihelion on 13 December 2023 at 0.849 AU (127.0 million km), from the Sun. It is probably a Liller family comet, together with C/1988 A1 (Liller), C/1996 Q1 (Tabur), C/2015 F3 (SWAN), and C/2019 Y1 (ATLAS).

Comet Burnham, formally designated as C/1959 Y1, is a hyperbolic comet that became visible to the naked eye in 1960. It is one of six comets discovered by American astronomer, Robert Burnham, Jr. It brightened up to a magnitude of 3.5.

C/1983 J1 (Sugano–Saigusa–Fujikawa) is a non-periodic comet discovered by Matsuo Sugano, Yoshikazu Saigusa, and Shigehisa Fujikawa on 8 May 1983. The comet approached Earth at a distance of 0.063 AU on 12 June 1983.

C/1991 L3 (Levy) is a periodic comet discovered by David H. Levy on 14 June 1991. The comet has an orbital period of 51 years and thus fits the definition of Halley-type comets, which have orbital periods between 20 and 200 years.

C/1996 Q1 (Tabur) is a non-periodic comet that became visible to the naked eye in October 1996. It is the first of three comets discovered by Australian astronomer, Vello Tabur.

References

1 2 3 Liller, W.; Cragg, T.; McNaught, R. H. (1 January 1988). "Comet Liller (1988a)". International Astronomical Union Circular (4527): 1. ISSN 0081-0304.
↑ "C/1988 A1 (Liller) – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory . Retrieved 30 December 2024.
1 2 de la Fuente Marcos, Carlos; de la Fuente Marcos, Raúl (27 November 2023). "Second-generation Fragments of a Comet Split in the Making: The Liller Family Comets". Research Notes of the AAS. 7 (11): 249. Bibcode:2023RNAAS...7..249D. doi: 10.3847/2515-5172/ad0f27 .
1 2 3 4 5 Kronk, Gary W.; Meyer, Maik; Seargent, David A. J. (2017). Cometography: a catalog of comets. Cambridge: Cambridge university press. pp. 340–343. ISBN 9780521872164.
↑ Marsden, Brian G. (17 January 1988). "1988a". International Astronomical Union Circular (4531).
↑ Jahn, J.; Plsek, M.; Pearce, A.; Spratt, C. E.; Sarneczky, K.; Hornoch, K. (1 August 1996). "Comet C/1996 Q1 (Tabur)". International Astronomical Union Circular (6464): 1. ISSN 0081-0304.
↑ Sekanina, Z. (1 February 1997). "The problem of split comets revisited". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 318: L5 –L8. Bibcode:1997A&A...318L...5S. ISSN 0004-6361.
↑ Sekanina, Zdenek; Kracht, Rainer (20 May 2016). "Pairs and Groups of Genetically Related Long-Period Comets and Proposed Identity of the Mysterious Lick Object of 1921". The Astrophysical Journal. 823 (1): 2. arXiv: 1510.06445 . Bibcode:2016ApJ...823....2S. doi: 10.3847/0004-637X/823/1/2 .

External links

C/1988 A1 at the JPL Small-Body Database
- Close approach · Discovery · Ephemeris · Orbit viewer · Orbit parameters · Physical parameters
Images of the comet

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[IAUC4527-1] 1 2 3 Liller, W.; Cragg, T.; McNaught, R. H. (1 January 1988). "Comet Liller (1988a)". International Astronomical Union Circular (4527): 1. ISSN 0081-0304.

[jpl-2] "C/1988 A1 (Liller) – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory . Retrieved 30 December 2024.

[de_la_Fuente_Marcos-3] 1 2 de la Fuente Marcos, Carlos; de la Fuente Marcos, Raúl (27 November 2023). "Second-generation Fragments of a Comet Split in the Making: The Liller Family Comets". Research Notes of the AAS. 7 (11): 249. Bibcode:2023RNAAS...7..249D. doi: 10.3847/2515-5172/ad0f27 .

[Cometography-4] 1 2 3 4 5 Kronk, Gary W.; Meyer, Maik; Seargent, David A. J. (2017). Cometography: a catalog of comets. Cambridge: Cambridge university press. pp. 340–343. ISBN 9780521872164.

[5] Marsden, Brian G. (17 January 1988). "1988a". International Astronomical Union Circular (4531).

[6] Jahn, J.; Plsek, M.; Pearce, A.; Spratt, C. E.; Sarneczky, K.; Hornoch, K. (1 August 1996). "Comet C/1996 Q1 (Tabur)". International Astronomical Union Circular (6464): 1. ISSN 0081-0304.

[7] Sekanina, Z. (1 February 1997). "The problem of split comets revisited". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 318: L5 –L8. Bibcode:1997A&A...318L...5S. ISSN 0004-6361.

[8] Sekanina, Zdenek; Kracht, Rainer (20 May 2016). "Pairs and Groups of Genetically Related Long-Period Comets and Proposed Identity of the Mysterious Lick Object of 1921". The Astrophysical Journal. 823 (1): 2. arXiv: 1510.06445 . Bibcode:2016ApJ...823....2S. doi: 10.3847/0004-637X/823/1/2 .

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