P/2011 P1 (McNaught)
Destroyed Jupiter family comet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
P/2011 P1 (McNaught) was a Jupiter-family comet that passed extremely close to Jupiter on 4 December 2010 and disintegrated by 2012.[3]
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Robert H. McNaught |
| Discovery site | Siding Spring, Australia |
| Discovery date | 1 August 2011 |
| Orbital characteristics[1][2] | |
| Epoch | 12 August 2011 (JD 2455793.5) |
| Observation arc | 1.14 yr (415 days) |
| Earliest precovery date | 6 December 2010 |
| Number of observations | 161 |
| Orbit type | Jupiter family · periodic |
| Aphelion | 10.692 AU |
| Perihelion | 4.952 AU |
| Semi-major axis | 7.822 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.3669 |
| Orbital period | 21.88 years |
| Inclination | 6.309° |
| 10.082° | |
| Argument of periapsis | 342.120° |
| Last perihelion | 24 July 2010 |
| TJupiter | 2.933 |
| Jupiter MOID | 0.001862 AU (278,600 km) |
| Physical characteristics[1][3] | |
| (B–V) = 0.89±0.09 (V–R) = 0.42±0.07 | |
| Comet total magnitude (M1) | 6.8 |
| Comet nuclear magnitude (M2) | 12.3 |
| 17.1[4] (2011 apparition) | |
Observational history
It was discovered on 1 August 2011 by astronomer Robert H. McNaught at the Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia.[5][6][7][8] With an observation arc of 415 days, the comet's nominal orbit solution suggests that its 2010 approach distance was 0.00084 AU (126,000 km; 78,000 mi) from Jupiter's center—well within Jupiter's Roche limit at which the comet would be torn apart by tidal forces.[1][3] The earliest precovery image of the comet was taken by Pan-STARRS 1 on 6 December 2010, two days after the comet's close pass with Jupiter.[2]