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TOPIC: COMET P/2008 X4

Blobrana

Posts: 131433

Date: Dec 13 16:43 2008

COMET P/2008 X4 (CHRISTENSEN)	Permalink

The magnitude 10 comet was discovered by Alan Watson (Melbourne) on STEREO-B satellite images taken on December 8, 2008. It was noticed by Maik Meyer that the orbital elements of the new comet was identical to comet P/2003 K2 (Christensen), which was due to reach the perihelion on January 8, 2009. The identity was confirmed by Brian Marsden, who showed that the perihelion passage data needed to be adjusted by 22 days. The orbital elements of the comet P/2008 X4 (Christensen) indicate a perihelion passage on December 19, 2008 at a distance of approximately 0.53 AU, and a 5.66 year period. MPEC 2008 -X81 Ephemeris __________________

Blobrana

Posts: 131433

Date: Dec 12 20:57 2008

COMET P/2008 X4

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Orbital elements:
    P/2008 X4
T 2008 Dec. 18.34 TT                                    MPC
q   0.4957               (2000.0)            P               Q
                   Peri.  336.25        +0.14129        -0.97372
                   Node   105.24        +0.93536        +0.07221
e   1.0            Incl.   10.67        +0.32425        +0.21599
From 27 observations 2008 Dec. 8-9.

MPEC 2008 -X81

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