Tuesday, May 29, 2012

New Comet: C/2012 K5 (LINEAR)

Cbet nr. 3127, issued on 2012, May 28, announces the discovery of a new comet (discovery magnitude 18.5) by the LINEAR survey on CCD images taken with the 1.0-m f/2.15 reflector on May 25.3. The new comet has been designated C/2012 K5 (LINEAR).

We performed some follow-up measurements of this object, while it was still on the neocp. Stacking of 8 R-filtered exposures, 120-sec each, obtained remotely, from the ITelescope network (near Mayhill, NM) on 2012, May 27.4, with a 0.43-m f/6.8 astrograph + CCD,shows that this object is a comet coma 10" in diameter and a tail nearly 20" long in PA 210 deg.


Our confirmation image (click on the image for a bigger version):



M.P.E.C. 2012-K69 assigns the following preliminary parabolic orbital elements to comet C/2012 K5: T 2012 Nov. 29.04; e= 1.0; Peri. = 138.80; q = 1.15 AU; Incl.= 92.84

by Ernesto Guido, Giovanni Sostero & Nick Howes

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What do you think is the cause of all these long period comets with highly inclined orbits?

Unknown said...

Thank You for give me such a great information..!

Unknown said...

Thanks for writing this article. I made a new comet website that charts all the naked-eye comets in 2013 and beyond. It includes historical information on each comet, orbital path (movies), etc.

I'll add c/2012 K5 soon.

Hope you enjoy the site. It can be found at http://www.fallofathousandsuns.com/comets.html