comet 285p / linear

discovery: 285P/2003 U2

appeared:

285P/2013 K2

coming:

285P Jan 2023

 

LINEAR discovered an 18th mag comet on October 19.09 which was confirmed to be cometary by other observers. Pre-discovery images back to September 19 were also found. It was at perihelion in early December 2003 at 1.7 au and has a period of 9.6 years.

F. Shelly, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reported the discovery of a comet with a diffuse coma and a very wide, fan-shaped tail in p.a. 85 deg on LINEAR images on October 19.09. Following posting on the NEO Confirmation Page, other CCD observers also commented on the cometary appearance on October 21.1-21.2, including J. Young at Table Mountain (0.6-m reflector; 5" coma without central condensation and with a fan-shaped tail about 25" long spanning p.a. 70-95 deg) and R. Fredrick and T. Medlock at Louisburg, KS (0.75-m reflector; 30" tail in p.a. 80 deg). [IAUC 8229, 2003 October 21]

Hidetaka Sato recovered 2003 U2 with the remote iTelescope 0.51m astrograph at Mayhill Observatory on 2013 May 8.45. Perihelion is 0.18 days earlier than predicted. [MPEC 2013-K37, 2013 May 24]

recent brightness increased by almost 6 magnitude to Mag 15 

The comet is one of those suspected to have undergone nuclear splitting according to the list of Marcos & Marcos [Dynamically correlated minor bodies in the outer solar system, MNRAS, 474, 838, 2018 February]. They link it to 2013 N5 (P/PanSTARRS). 

deldot approach zero @ 13 Aug 2022

Aerith japan

BAA comet