Comet LINEAR photographed from Mount Laguna, California on 11 July 2007 | |
Discovery | |
---|---|
Discovered by | LINEAR |
Discovery date | 13 November 2006 |
Orbital characteristics [1] | |
Epoch | 13 June 2007 (JD 2454264.5) |
Observation arc | 274 days |
Number of observations | 1,025 |
Perihelion | 1.0152 AU |
Eccentricity | 1.000249 |
Inclination | 134.793° |
66.0269° | |
Argument of periapsis | 174.115° |
Last perihelion | 10 August 2007 |
Earth MOID | 0.0047 AU |
Jupiter MOID | 2.8204 AU |
Physical characteristics | |
Comet total magnitude (M1) | 13.9 |
7.5 (2007 apparition) |
C/2006 VZ13 (LINEAR) is a non-periodic comet discovered by the LINEAR survey on 13 November 2006.
The object was initially believed to be an asteroid due to its stellar appearance in the early images. However, observers soon detected a small coma and the telltale green cometary cast.
The comet peaked at approximately magnitude +7.5, [2] much brighter than predicted. [3] The comet made Earth approach on July 14, 2007 at a distance of 0.575 AU. Perihelion was August 10, 2007 at a distance of 1.015 AU.
Damocloids are a class of minor planets such as 5335 Damocles and 1996 PW that have Halley-type or long-period highly eccentric orbits typical of periodic comets such as Halley's Comet, but without showing a cometary coma or tail. David Jewitt defines a damocloid as an object with a Jupiter Tisserand invariant (TJ) of 2 or less, while Akimasa Nakamura defines this group with the following orbital elements:
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In observational astronomy, the observation arc of a Solar System body is the time period between its earliest and latest observations, used for tracing the body's path. It is usually given in days or years. The term is mostly used in the discovery and tracking of asteroids and comets. Arc length has the greatest influence on the accuracy of an orbit. The number, spacing of intermediate observations, and timestamps have a lesser effect.
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Comet 252P/LINEAR is a periodic comet and near-Earth object discovered by the LINEAR survey on April 7, 2000. The comet is a Jupiter family comet, meaning that it passes quite close to the orbit of Jupiter.
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