| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Georges Attard and Alain Maury |
| Discovery date | October 24, 2021 |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Aphelion | 6.56 AU |
| Perihelion | 1.89 AU |
| Semi-major axis | 4.22 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.55 |
| Orbital period | 8.68 yr |
| Inclination | 70.05° |
| 75.10° | |
P/2021 U3 (Attard-Maury) is a comet of the Jupiter family discovered on 24 October 2021 by Georges Attard and Alain Maury. [1] [2] The comet had a magnitude of 19 at the time of its discovery. It is the second comet discovered using the synthetic tracking technique, using the Tycho software, as part of the MAP Observation Program. [3]
The comet was discovered on October 24, 2021 by Georges Attard, an amateur astronomer from Mougins, and Alain Maury, a former astronomer at the CERGA and the Palomar Observatory, now director of the astronomical resources center Space in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. [4]
To detect near-Earth objects, Alain Maury, Georges Attard, and Daniel Parrott designed the MAP project. This project is based on a method, observation telescopes, processing software, and of course, diligent observers. [5]
The characteristics are detailed in the database of the Minor Planet Center (MPC) and in the database of JPL's Solar System Dynamics group at (Caltech/NASA) [6] [7]
The orbital period is 8 and a half years. [7] Its trajectory can be observed in the small bodies database [8]
The aphelion is 6.56 AU, close to the orbit of Jupiter. [6] [7]
The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
Andrea Boattini is an Italian astronomer and a prolific discoverer of minor planets and comets.
45P/Honda–Mrkos–Pajdušáková is a short-period comet discovered by Minoru Honda December 3, 1948. It is named after Minoru Honda, Antonín Mrkos, and Ľudmila Pajdušáková. The object revolves around the Sun on an elliptical orbit with a period of 5.25 years. The nucleus is 1.3 kilometers in diameter. On August 19 and 20, 2011, it became the fifteenth comet detected by ground radar telescope.
27270 Guidotti (provisional designation 2000 AY4) is a carbonaceous background asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 7 kilometres in diameter. It was discovered on 2 January 2000, by Italian astronomers Luciano Tesi and Alfredo Caronia at the Pistoia Mountains Astronomical Observatory in San Marcello Pistoiese, Italy. The asteroid was named after amateur astronomer Guido Guidotti.
(523731) 2014 OK394 (provisional designation 1995 SN55) is a trans-Neptunian object that orbits in the outer Solar System beyond the orbit of Neptune. First observed as 1995 SN55 by Spacewatch on 20 September 1995, it was a lost minor planet with an insufficiently defined orbit with only 36 days of observations. On 8 October 2010, it was rediscovered by the Pan-STARRS 1 survey and later announced as 2014 OK394 in July 2016. It was not until November 2020 when amateur astronomers S. Deen and K. Ly identified 2014 OK394 and 1995 SN55 as the same object. This identification was confirmed and announced by the Minor Planet Center in January 2021.
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440P/Kobayashi is a periodic comet in the Solar System, discovered by the Japanese amateur astronomer Takao Kobayashi on January 30, 1997. It was the first comet to be discovered by an amateur astronomer with the use of CCD.
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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.
255P/Levy, formerly P/2006 T1 and P/2011 Y1, is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 5.25 years. It last came to perihelion on 14 January 2012. During the 2006 passage the comet achieved an apparent magnitude of ~9.5. Levy (PK06T010) was believed to have been recovered on 3 June 2011 at magnitude 19.8, but other observatories were unable to confirm a recovery. It was most likely a false positive because of large residuals. Levy was recovered on 17 December 2011 at magnitude 19.8, and given the second designation 2011 Y1. It was then numbered.
479P/Elenin, with provisional designation P/2011 NO1 (Elenin), is a periodic comet with an orbital period estimated at 13.3 years.
(523671) 2013 FZ27 (provisional designation 2013 FZ27) is a trans-Neptunian object located in the Kuiper belt in the outermost region of the Solar System, approximately 570 kilometers (350 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 16 March 2013, by American astronomers Scott Sheppard and Chad Trujillo at the CTIO in Chile. Numbered in 2018, this minor planet has not been named.
Dmitry Nikolayevich Chestnov is a Russian astronomer, observer and photometrist of comets and discoverer of minor planets. He lives in Saransk, the capital city of the Republic of Mordovia, Russia.
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(457175) 2008 GO98 (provisional designation 2008 GO98) with cometary number 362P, is a Jupiter family comet in a quasi-Hilda orbit within the outermost regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 8 April 2008, by astronomers of the Spacewatch program at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona, in the United States. This presumably carbonaceous body has a diameter of approximately 15 kilometers (9 miles) and rotation period of 10.7 hours.
(501546) 2014 JJ80, prov. designation:2014 JJ80, is a trans-Neptunian object from the outermost region of the Solar System. It was discovered on 9 July 2013, by astronomers with the Pan-STARRS survey at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, United States. It is a dwarf planet candidate, as it measures approximately 350 kilometers (220 miles) in diameter.
(495603) 2015 AM281 (provisional designation 2015 AM281) is a resonant trans-Neptunian object in the outermost region of the Solar System, guesstimated at approximately 470 kilometers (290 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 13 March 2010, by astronomers with the Pan-STARRS survey at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, United States.
2021 AV7 is a near-Earth asteroid of the Apollo group, discovered by astronomers Alain Maury and G. Attard at San Pedro de Atacama, Chile on 15 January 2021. With an estimated diameter of 440–1,000 m (1,440–3,280 ft), it is considered a potentially hazardous asteroid. It has a highly elliptical orbit that brings it within Earth's orbit. However, its nominal orbit has a minimum orbit intersection distance around 2.6×106 km (1.6×106 mi) from Earth's orbital path, and the closest approach the asteroid is expected to make over the next two centuries is to within 0.140 astronomical units (20.9×106 km; 13.0×106 mi) on 28 February 2096.
C/2021 J1 (Maury-Attard) is a Halley-type comet discovered on May 9, 2021, by French amateur astronomers Alain Maury and Georges Attard with the MAP (Maury/Attard/Parrott) observation program. It is the first comet discovered with the synthetic tracking technique, made possible with the Tycho Tracker commercial software developed by Daniel Parrott. When it was discovered, it had a magnitude of 19.
P/2011 P1 (McNaught) was a Jupiter-family comet that passed extremely close to Jupiter on 4 December 2010 and disintegrated by 2012. It was discovered on 1 August 2011 by astronomer Robert H. McNaught at the Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia. With an observation arc of 415 days, the comet's nominal orbit solution suggests that its 2010 approach distance was 0.00084 astronomical units from Jupiter's center—well within Jupiter's Roche limit at which the comet would be torn apart by tidal forces. The earliest precovery image of the comet was taken by Pan-STARRS 1 on 6 December 2010, two days after the comet's close pass with Jupiter.
2021 in space | ||
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