Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Comets & Asteroids - Summary for March 2017

During the month of March 2017, 8 new comets were discovered. "Current comet magnitudes" & "Daily updated asteroid flybys" pages are available at the top of this blog (or just click on the underline text here). See below for the "Other news" section.

The dates below refer to the date of issuance of CBET (Central Bureau Electronic  Telegram)  which reported the official news & designations.

- Comet Discoveries

Mar 01 Discovery of P/2017 D1 (FULS)
Mar 01 Discovery of C/2017 D2 (BARROS)
Mar 01 Discovery of C/2017 D3 (ATLAS)
Mar 01 Discovery of P/2017 D4 (PANSTARRS)
Mar 04 Discovery of C/2017 E1 (BORISOV)
Mar 07 Discovery of C/2017 E2 (XUYI)
Mar 13 Discovery of C/2017 E3 (PANSTARRS)
Mar 13 Discovery of C/2017 E4 (LOVEJOY)

 Click on the images below for a bigger version

C/2017 E1 (BORISOV) - E. Guido
C/2017 E4 (LOVEJOY) - E. Guido












Discovery images of C/2017 D3 (ATLAS) - Credits: The ATLAS Project

- Other news 


Credits: Z. Sekanina & R. Kracht



Mar 03 A new, bright Sungrazing comet racing towards the Sun via @SungrazerComets

Credits: ESA/NASA/SOHO/LASCO C3

Credits: Kiss et al.


Mar 09 CBET 4371 & CBET 4374 (Mar 19) report that the following minor planets are binaries systems: (2825) CROSBY & (1798) WATTS

Mar 09 PAN, the second-innermost moon of Saturn, imaged by @CassiniSaturn on March 07, 2017


Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Mar 28 New paper on arXiv by Jewitt & al.: "Anatomy of an Asteroid Break-Up: The Case of P/2013 R3"


Credits: Jewitt & al.

Mar 29 CBET 4376 reports that the following names have been voted upon by the IAU Working Group on Small Body Nomenclature for recently discovered comets:

Designation (Name)                          Discovery Reference
P/2015 PD229 (Cameron-ISON)             CBET 4251
C/2014 HU195 (Valdes-TOTAS)             CBET 4294

Further to CBET 4343, the following permanent numbers have been assigned to short-period comets based upon their being securely observed at multiple returns to perihelion.
                                                                                               
Designation/Name         Provisional Designations              Discovery/Recovery Reference       
348P/PANSTARRS      P/2017 A2 = P/2011 A5                        CBET 4341
349P/Lemmon              P/2010 EY90 = P/2017 B1                    CBET 4349
350P/McNaught           P/2010 J5 = P/2017 B2                         CBET 4352

Mar 30 New paper on NATURE by Wiegert et al. about the first retrograde co-orbital asteroid: 2015 BZ509: "A retrograde co-orbital asteroid of Jupiter" (see animation below)




by Ernesto Guido

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