143P/Kowal–Mrkos
Jupiter-family comet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
143P/KowalâMrkos is a periodic comet in the Solar System.
- D/1984 H1
- P/1984 JD
- P/2000 ET90
| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Charles T. Kowal AntonÃn Mrkos |
| Discovery site | Palomar Observatory Klet' Observatory |
| Discovery date | 2 May 1984 |
| Designations | |
| |
| 1984 X, 1984n | |
| Orbital characteristics[2][3] | |
| Epoch | 5 May 2025 (JD 2460800.5) |
| Observation arc | 40.83 years |
| Earliest precovery date | 23 April 1984 |
| Number of observations | 1,231 |
| Aphelion | 6.618 AU |
| Perihelion | 2.942 AU |
| Semi-major axis | 4.780 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.38458 |
| Orbital period | 10.451 years |
| Inclination | 5.472° |
| 242.62° | |
| Argument of periapsis | 304.32° |
| Mean anomaly | 303.47° |
| Last perihelion | 7 May 2018 |
| Next perihelion | 28 December 2026[4] |
| TJupiter | 2.864 |
| Earth MOID | 1.537 AU |
| Jupiter MOID | 0.019 AU |
| Physical characteristics[5] | |
Mean radius | 5.7±0.6 km |
| 17.21±0.10 hours | |
| (VâR) = 0.58±0.02 | |
| Comet total magnitude (M1) | 14.5 |
Observational history
Discovery and loss
AntonÃn Mrkos first reported the discovery of this comet as an asteroid named 1984 JD, after spotting it as a 16th-magnitude object on the night of 2 May 1984.[6] In September 1984, Charles T. Kowal analyzed photographic plates exposed on the night of 23 April 1984 and he noted the comet as almost stellar-like, with a faint but discernible coma.[6] Brian G. Marsden immediately recognized that Kowal's object is identical to that of Mrkos' discovery, allowing him to calculate an elliptical orbit for the object,[1] which allowed Mrkos to notice that he indeed captured faint cometary activity on images he took on 19 May.[7] However, it was not observed beyond that date, and was initially considered lost, subsequently redesignated as D/1984 H1.[6]
Recovery
It was not observed during the comet's predicted apparition in 1992.[8] Shuichi Nakano later revised his orbital calculations for the comet in 1997, which allowed him to predict that the comet may next return by 2000.[6] It was successfully recovered on 9 March 2000, when LINEAR and LONEOS spotted an asteroid-like object with a comet-like orbit (2000 ET90), which Marsden noted matched those predicted for KowalâMrkos.[9]