Comets

Comet PANSTARRS could refer to any one of the hundreds of comets discovered by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System atop Haleakala in Maui. One of its discoveries (C/2011 L4) was a naked-eye comet visible in both the southern and northern hemisphere in early 2013.

The Mt. Lemmon Survey (MLSS) has discovered more Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) than any telescope on Earth. MLSS has also discovered comets. On March 23, 2012 images from MLSS captured a 20.7 magnitude comet (C/2012 F6).

Comet Encke (2P/Encke) orbits our Sun once every 3.3 years, which is the quickest known orbit of any comet. Meteor showers, known as the Taurids and Beta Taurids, are thought to be the remains of the dust trail left by Comet Encke. There are even theories that the Tunguska explosion in 1908 was created by a small piece of Comet Encke.

On September 24, 2012 it was announced that we had a 2 mile (3 km) wide visitor in our solar system between Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation Cancer. Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) could be as bright as a full moon in November and December of 2013. The path of Comet ISON is extremely elliptical.

 

NASA's SWIFT satellite typically studies the aftermath of exploding stars in distant galaxies. However, the satellite was used in January and February of 2013 by astronomers from the University of Maryland at College Park and Lowell Observatory to study the dust and water being expelled from Comet ISON. These studies led to the first estimate of the size of Comet ISON at 3 miles (5 km) in diameter.

Dozens of tiny comets, known as sungrazers, will tightly orbit the Sun in 2013, but will probably only be visible from space observatories like SOHO, LASCO and STEREO (A and B). The general public can comb through movies and images captured by SOHO, attempting to discover the next comet. It's not as impossible as it sounds. A comet is discovered every three days on average using images from SOHO.

 

Over the course of 42 hours in October of 2007, Comet Holmes (17P/Holmes) became a half million times brighter on its way to becoming the largest object in the solar system - larger than the Sun, or Brad Pitt's ego, if only for a brief time.

Comet Faye (4P/Faye) was discovered in 1844 by a French astronomer. It was the first periodic comet to be named after its discoverer and not the individual who determined its orbit.

Russian astronomer, Mikhail Maslov, believes Earth will pass through the tail of Comet 209P / LINEAR between 7:00 and 8:00 UT on May 24, 2014. It could result in a meteor storm producing between 100 and 400 meteors an hour. Viewing conditions will be particular good in Canada and the United States. Circle this date on your calendar.

There is currently a 1 and 120,000 chance that Comet Siding Spring (C/2013 A1) will hit Mars on October 19, 2014. Based on Leonid Elenin's recent observations, Comet Siding Spring will pass 0.000276 AU (41,300 km, 25,700 miles) from the surface of Mars. For comparison, the average distance between the Earth and Moon is .00257 AU (384,400 km, 238,900 miles).

According to the Minor Planet Center, on June 26, 1927 Pons-Winnecke passed .0394 AU from Earth. That’s a little more than fifteen times the average distance between Earth and the Moon.

This comet was spotted and recorded by Heinrich Ludwig d' Arrest in Leipzig, Germany on June 28, 1851. It was the sixth comet to have its periodic orbit determined, and therefore received the formal name of 6D/d'Arrest.

Edmond Halley used Newtonian physics to predict that a comet appearing in 1531, 1607 and 1682 would return in 1759. Halley died in 1742, so he didn’t live to see the return of his comet. When the comet did return on Christmas Eve in 1758, it became known as Halley’s Comet (1P/Halley). Halley's feat marked the first time in history that a comet returned to the inner solar system as predicted.

 

When the Swift-Tuttle Comet (109P/Swift-Tuttle) was spottedin 1862 it had an apparent magnitude of 2 and a tail spanning 25-30° of night sky. The nucleus of Swift-Tuttle is 17 miles (27 km) in diameter, which is nearly triple the diameter of killer that slammed into the Earth 65,000,000 years ago and caused one of the largest extinction events in history.

 

In December of 2011, Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3) stunned scientists by traveling through the Sun's corona and survived an estimated 2,200,000° F (1,222,204° C).

In 1965, Comet Ikeya-Seki (C/1965 S1) reached an apparent magnitude of -10. It could easily be seen in the daytime sky and was the brightest comet since 1882 CE.

After its discovery in 1995 by two amateurs, Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) became one of the most spectacular naked eye comets in history. It remains the largest comet ever observed, with a nucleus measuring 37± 12 miles (60±20 km) in diameter.

Comet LINEAR could refer to any one of the hundreds of comets discovered by Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) at MIT. It is one of the few systems in the world, which is automated. A telescope and computers collect, analyze and sort data non-stop. Since its inception, LINEAR has detected 2,423 near earth objects including 279 comets. The comet pictured broke into 200 pieces in the summer of 2000.

 

The comet pictured to the left (C/2002 V1) orbits the Sun once every 37,000 years at 81° compared to the ecliptic. It was discovered in 2002 by the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program.

On March 25th, 1996, Comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2) passed .1 AU from Earth. Frighteningly, this comet had been discovered less than two months earlier by an amateur Japanese astronomer armed only with a pair of binoculars.

During a solar eclipse in 1948 a comet with an apparent magnitude of -2 was spotted near the Sun. The comet became infamously known as the "Eclipse Comet". It was formally designated C/1948 V1.

If someone were to say, "Comet McNaught", they could be referring to any of the over fifty comets discovered by astronomer and comet-hunter Robert McNaught. One discovery, C/2006 P1, became one of the most beautiful naked eye comets in recorded history.

In 1976, Comet West (C/1975 V1) reached an apparent magnitude of –3 during its closest approach to the Sun. It was brighter than Venus in the morning sky.

In 1852, Comet Biela's (3P/Biela) nucleus was observed fragmenting into two pieces. It has not been seen since and is widely consdiered "lost" or destroyed. Ironically, its discoverer may have outlived the comet he discovered. In the 19th century, Biela was the suspected parent of several meteorite impacts. There were even suggestions that it caused the Great Chicago Fire.

Theodor Brorsen made worldwide news with this discovery in 1846. In the land before television and the internet, newspapers carried the story around the world. The fifth comet to ever have its periodic orbit determined became known as Comet Brorsen (5P/Brorsen).

Unlike most comets, which orbit around the Sun, Shoemaker-Levy 9 (D/1993 F2) was orbiting around Jupiter when it was first spotted in 1993.  Astrophysicists ran some calculations and believed that the fragments, all twenty-one of them, would slam into Jupiter in July of 1994. They weren’t disappointed.

Comet Lovejoy may have survived a death-defying close call with the Sun in early 2012, but, months later, NASA observed the death of Comet SWAN as it plunged into the Sun and ended its multi-billion year existence.

An attempt to create a list of the brightest comets in known history.

Once a comet's orbital “P”eriod has been confirmed by multiple returns to the inner solar system, it is assigned a number (i.e. 1P/Halley, 2P/Encke…281P/MOSS).  As of April 26, 2013 only 281 comets had there orbital “P”eriod definitively determined. They are listed on this page.