Discovery | |
---|---|
Discovered by | Robert D. Matson and Michael Mattiazzo |
Discovery date | June 20, 2006 |
Orbital characteristics | |
Epoch | 2006 Sept. 22 (JD 2454000.5) [1] |
Aphelion | 2600 AU [2] |
Perihelion | 0.783007 AU [1] |
Semi-major axis | 1300 AU [2] |
Eccentricity | 1.000186 [1] |
Orbital period | 47,000 yr [2] |
Inclination | 111.82° |
Last perihelion | September 28, 2006 [1] |
Next perihelion | Hyperbolic trajectory— Oort cloud comet |
Comet C/2006 M4 (SWAN) is a non-periodic comet discovered in late June 2006 by Robert D. Matson of Irvine, California and Michael Mattiazzo of Adelaide, South Australia in publicly available images of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). These images were captured by the Solar Wind ANisotropies (SWAN) Lyman-alpha all-sky camera on board the SOHO. The comet was officially announced after a ground-based confirmation by Robert McNaught (Siding Spring Survey) on July 12. [3]
Although perihelion was Sept 28, 2006, [1] the comet flared dramatically from seventh magnitude to fourth magnitude on October 24, 2006, becoming visible with the naked eye. [4]
Comet C/2006 M4 is in a hyperbolic trajectory (with an osculating eccentricity larger than 1) [1] during its passage through the inner Solar System. After leaving the influence of the planets, the eccentricity will drop below 1 and it will remain bound to the Solar System as an Oort cloud comet.
Given the extreme orbital eccentricity of this object, different epochs can generate quite different heliocentric unperturbed two-body best-fit solutions to the aphelion distance (maximum distance) of this object. For objects at such high eccentricity, the Suns barycentric coordinates are more stable than heliocentric coordinates. Using JPL Horizons, the barycentric orbital elements for epoch 2013-May-14 generate a semi-major axis of about 1300 AU and a period of about 47,000 years. [2]
Comet Machholz, formally designated C/2004 Q2, is a long-period comet discovered by Donald Machholz on August 27, 2004. It reached naked eye brightness in January 2005. Unusual for such a relatively bright comet, its perihelion was farther from the Sun than the Earth's orbit.
JPL Horizons On-Line Ephemeris System provides access to key Solar System data and flexible production of highly accurate ephemerides for Solar System objects.
Comet C/2002 V1 (NEAT) is a non-periodic comet that appeared in November 2002. The comet peaked with an apparent magnitude of approximately –0.5, making it the eighth-brightest comet seen since 1935. It was seen by SOHO in February 2003. At perihelion the comet was only 0.099258 astronomical units from the Sun.
Comet McNaught, also known as the Great Comet of 2007 and given the designation C/2006 P1, is a non-periodic comet discovered on 7 August 2006 by British-Australian astronomer Robert H. McNaught using the Uppsala Southern Schmidt Telescope. It was the brightest comet in over 40 years, and was easily visible to the naked eye for observers in the Southern Hemisphere in January and February 2007.
Comet Zhu–Balam is a long-period comet first identified by David D. Balam on June 8, 1997 and originally photographed by Jin Zhu on June 3, 1997. The comet is estimated at 10 kilometres in diameter with a period of approximately 36,800 years.
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.
(308933) 2006 SQ372 is a trans-Neptunian object and highly eccentric centaur on a cometary-like orbit in the outer region of the Solar System, approximately 123 kilometers (76 miles) in diameter. It was discovered through the Sloan Digital Sky Survey by astronomers Andrew Becker, Andrew Puckett and Jeremy Kubica on images first taken on 27 September 2006 (with precovery images dated to 13 September 2005).
Comet Lulin is a non-periodic comet. It was discovered by Ye Quanzhi and Lin Chi-Sheng from Lulin Observatory. It peaked in brightness at magnitude between +4.5 and +5, becoming visible to the naked eye, and arrived at perigee for observers on Earth on February 24, 2009, and at 0.411 AU from Earth.
Comet C/2010 X1 (Elenin) is an Oort cloud comet discovered by Russian amateur astronomer Leonid Elenin on December 10, 2010, through remote control of the International Scientific Optical Network's robotic observatory near Mayhill in the U.S. state of New Mexico. The discovery was made using the automated asteroids discovery program CoLiTec. At the time of discovery, the comet had an apparent magnitude of 19.5, which made it about 150,000 times fainter than can be seen with the naked eye. The discoverer, Leonid Elenin, originally estimated that the comet nucleus was 3–4 km in diameter, but more recent estimates place the pre-breakup size of the comet at 2 km. Comet Elenin started disintegrating in August 2011, and as of mid-October 2011 was not visible even using large ground-based telescopes.
(523622) 2007 TG422, provisional designation 2007 TG422, is a trans-Neptunian object on a highly eccentric orbit in the scattered disc region at the edge of Solar System. Approximately 260 kilometers (160 miles) in diameter, it was discovered on 3 October 2007 by astronomers Andrew Becker, Andrew Puckett and Jeremy Kubica during the Sloan Digital Sky Survey at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, United States. According to American astronomer Michael Brown, the bluish object is "possibly" a dwarf planet. It belongs to a group of objects studied in 2014, which led to the proposition of the hypothetical Planet Nine.
C/1999 F1 (Catalina) is one of the longest known long-period comets. It was discovered on March 23, 1999, by the Catalina Sky Survey. The current perihelion point is outside of the inner Solar System which helps reduce planetary perturbations to this outer Oort cloud object and keep the inbound and outbound orbital periods similar.
2012 DR30 is a trans-Neptunian object and centaur from the scattered disk and/or inner Oort cloud, located in the outermost region of the Solar System. The object with a highly eccentric orbit of 0.99 was first observed by astronomers with the Spacewatch program at Steward Observatory on 31 March 2009. It measures approximately 188 kilometers (120 miles) in diameter.
2013 BL76 is a trans-Neptunian object and centaur from the scattered disk and Inner Oort cloud approximately 30 kilometers in diameter.
2005 VX3 is trans-Neptunian object and retrograde damocloid on a highly eccentric, cometary-like orbit. It was first observed on 1 November 2005, by astronomers with the Mount Lemmon Survey at the Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona, United States. The unusual object measures approximately 7 kilometers (4 miles) in diameter. It has the 3rd largest known heliocentric semi-major axis and aphelion. Additionally its perihelion lies within the orbit of Jupiter, which means it also has the largest orbital eccentricity of any known minor planet.
C/2013 US10 (Catalina) is an Oort cloud comet discovered on 31 October 2013 by the Catalina Sky Survey at an apparent magnitude of 19 using a 0.68-meter (27 in) Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope. From September 2015 to February 2016 the comet was around apparent magnitude 6. The comet took around a million years to complete half an orbit from its furthest distance in the Oort cloud and should be ejected from the Solar System over many millions of years.
2010 BK118 (also written 2010 BK118) is a centaur roughly 20–60 km in diameter. It is on a retrograde cometary orbit. It has a barycentric semi-major axis (average distance from the Sun) of ~400 AU.
(418993) 2009 MS9, provisionally known as 2009 MS9, is a centaur roughly 30–60 km in diameter. It has a highly inclined orbit and a barycentric semi-major axis (average distance from the Sun) of ~353 AU.
C/2017 U7 (PanSTARRS) is a hyperbolic comet, first observed on 29 October 2017 by astronomers of the Pan-STARRS facility at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, United States when the object was 7.8 AU (1.2 billion km) from the Sun. Despite being discovered only 10 days after interstellar asteroid 1I/'Oumuamua, it was not announced until March 2018 as its orbit is not strongly hyperbolic beyond most Oort Cloud comets. Based on the absolute magnitude of 10.6, it may measure tens of kilometers in diameter. As of August 2018, there is only 1 hyperbolic asteroid known, ʻOumuamua, but hundreds of hyperbolic comets are known.
C/2018 C2 (Lemmon) is a hyperbolic comet. It was first observed on 5 February 2018 by the Mount Lemmon Survey conducted at the Mount Lemmon Observatory near Tucson, Arizona, in the United States. The discovery was announced on 4 March 2018 along with another hyperbolic object, A/2017 U7. Based on the absolute magnitude of 15.1, it may measure several kilometers in diameter. On 22 March 2018 it was determined to be a hyperbolic comet.