C/2019 U6 (Lemmon)

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C/2019 U6 (Lemmon)
Cometa Lemmon - C2019U6 - Esteban J. Andrada - Argentina.jpg
C/2019 U6 observed with an amateur telescope in June 2020
Orbital characteristics
Observation arc 1.54 yr
Aphelion 960 AU (inbound)
604 AU (outbound)
Perihelion 0.91427 AU
Last perihelion18 June 2020
Next perihelion~10,500 yr (inbound) [1]
~5,200 yr (outbound)
Earth MOID 0.0288  AU (4.31 million  km; 11.2  LD)

C/2019 U6 (Lemmon), or Comet Lemmon is a long period comet with a near-parabolic orbit discovered by the Mount Lemmon Survey on October 31, 2019. [2] It made its closest approach to the Sun on June 18, 2020. In June 2020 it was visible near the naked eye limit at an apparent magnitude of 6.0. [3] It is the 3rd brightest naked eye comet of 2020 after C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) and C/2020 F8 (SWAN). It remained visible near the naked eye limit in June. [4]

This perihelion passage will decrease the comet's orbital period from about 10500 years to about 5200 years. [1]

Even though C/2019 U6 has an Earth-MOID of 0.0288  AU (4.31 million  km ; 11.2  LD ), [2] the closest approach to Earth was on June 29, 2020 at a distance of 0.82  AU (123 million  km ; 320  LD ).

References

  1. 1 2 JPL Horizons barycentric solution for epoch 1950 (before entering planetary region)
    Goto JPL Horizons
    Ephemeris Type: Orbital Elements
    Center: @0 (Solar System Barycenter)
    Time Span: 1950-01-01 to 2050-01-01 and Step Size: 100 years
    1950-Jan-01 is "PR= 3.84E+06 / 365.25 days" = 10513 years
  2. 1 2 "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: C/2019 U6 (Lemmon)". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  3. ↑ Ghosh, Trinankur. "Comet Observation database (COBS)" . Retrieved 10 May 2020. "C/2019 U6 plot" Archived 2020-07-18 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ Seiichi Yoshida. "C/2019 U6 ( Lemmon )" . Retrieved 10 May 2020.
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