144P/Kushida

144P/Kushida

Comet 144P/Kushida 2008/2009 Appearance - Courtesy Hunter Wilson
Discovery
Discovered by Yoshio Kushida
Discovery date January 8, 1994
Orbital characteristics A
Epoch January 9, 2009 (JDT 2454840.5)
Aphelion 6.293 AU
Perihelion 1.439 AU
Semi-major axis 3.8478 AU
Eccentricity 0.627754
Orbital period 7.60 a
Inclination 4.1°
Last perihelion January 26, 2009
Next perihelion August 30, 2016[1]

144P/Kushida is a periodic comet discovered in January, 1994, by Yoshio Kushida at the Yatsugatake South Base Observatory in Japan. This was the first comet discovery of 1994 and his second discovery within a month.

Based on data gathered during the period of January 9–11, 1994 Syuichi Nakano calculated the date of perihelion to be 1993 December 5.33 and the distance of perihelion as 1.36 AU. The low inclination to the ecliptic suggested to Nakano that the comet could be a short period type. On January 14, 1994 Daniel W. E. Green confirmed Nakano's suggestion and published a short-period orbit on IAU Circular 5922. Based on 29 positions obtained during the period of January 9–13, Green determined a perihelion date of 1993 December 12.99, a perihelion distance of 1.37 AU, and an orbital period of 7.20 years.

Using over 300 positions obtained between January 7 and July 9, 1994 Patrick Rocher refined the calculations and determined the perihelion distance as 1.367 AU, the perihelion date as 1993 December 12.862, and the orbital period as 7.366 years.

References

  1. ↑ Syuichi Nakano (2009-03-18). "144P/Kushida (NK 1753)". OAA Computing and Minor Planet Sections. Retrieved 2012-02-25.

External links

Numbered comets
Previous
143P/Kowal–Mrkos 		144P/Kushida Next
145P Shoemaker–Levy
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/17/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.