[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Recent Comet News
RECENT COMET NEWS
May 13, 1997
In the past week, there has been a flurry of exciting new comet observations,
including the discovery of several new comets. On May 5, IAU Circular 6642
reports the discovery of a new comet by Jean Mueller from JPL designated as
Comet 1997 J1. The comet was discovered on a 40 minute exposure using the
1.2 meter Oschin Schmidt telescope at Palomar. This is Jean Mueller's 12th
comet discovery. On May 9, IAU Circular 6650 reports the discovery of a new
comet, designated as 1997 H2, by the SOHO satellite. This comet passed only
0.14 AU from the Sun on May 2. On May 10, IAU Circular 6653 reports the
discovery of a four additional new comets by the SOHO satllite from
coronagraph images taken last year. These comets are designated as
1996 Q2, Q3, S1 and Y1. All four of the comets are in the sun-grazing
Kreutz group, and all four have already impacted into the Sun.
IAU Circular 6653 also reports that the nucleus of Comet Evans-Drinkwater
has split into two, as observed by J. Kobayashi from the Kumamoto Civil
Astronomical Observatory in Japan.
Ron Baalke