BAA Comet Section : 2005 Kreutz & other group comets

Updated 2005 April 1

Further to IAUC 8458, following are the initial observations of additional comets found on SOHO website images (XG = X. Gao; RM = R. Matson; SF = S. Farmer, Jr.); all are Kreutz sungrazers except for C/2004 W10 (which belongs to the Marsden group) and C/2004 X7 (which does not belong to a known group).

 Comet        2004 UT      R.A.(2000)Decl.   Inst.  F    MPEC
 C/2004 W7    Nov. 24.096  15 51.3  -24 34   C3/2   TH   2005-A12
 C/2004 W8         24.129  15 59.8  -22 18   C2     XL   2005-A12
 C/2004 W9         28.435  16 18.7  -23 07   C2     XG   2005-A12
 C/2004 W10        29.102  16 18.4  -21 20   C2     RK   2005-A13
 C/2004 W11        30.618  16 28.8  -23 32   C2     RM   2005-A13
 C/2004 X4    Dec.  2.971  16 35.9  -25 46   C3/2   SF   2005-A13
 C/2004 X5          4.976  16 50.6  -24 19   C2     TH   2005-A13
 C/2004 X6          6.643  16 58.2  -24 30   C2     TH   2005-A40
 C/2004 X7          7.185  17 01.4  -21 35   C2     RK   2005-A40
 C/2004 X8          8.811  17 08.2  -24 47   C2     RM   2005-A40
 C/2004 X9         13.242  17 27.7  -25 04   C2     KB   2005-A40
[IAUC 8466, 2005 January 17]

Further to IAUC 8466, following are the initial observations of additional comets found on SOHO website images (GG = G. Gallina; HO = H. Otterstedt); all are Kreutz sungrazers except for C/2004 Y4, which has no known group membership and reached mag 5-6 on Dec. 26 (but showed no tail).

 Comet        2004 UT      R.A.(2000)Decl.   Inst.  F    MPEC
 C/2004 X10   Dec. 13.292  17 27.9  -25 05   C2     KB   2005-A41
 C/2004 X11        13.883  17 30.1  -25 03   C2     GG   2005-A41
 C/2004 Y2         18.975  17 53.7  -25 18   C2     HS   2005-A41
 C/2004 Y3         24.279  18 22.1  -28 37   C3     TS   2005-A41
 C/2004 Y4         24.679  18 14.6  -17 32   C3     HO   2005-A41
[IAUC 8469, 2005 January 19]

Further to IAUC 8469, following are the initial observations of additional Kreutz sungrazing comets found on SOHO website images.

 Comet       2004 UT      R.A.(2000)Decl.   Inst.  F    MPEC
 C/2004 T8   Oct.  4.179  12 26.0  - 5 30   C3/2   HS   2005-B39
 C/2004 Y5   Dec. 25.821  18 26.3  -25 53   C3/2   BZ   2005-B39
 C/2004 Y6        25.983  18 25.7  -24 59   C2     HS   2005-B39
 C/2004 Y7        26.267  18 27.3  -24 48   C2     HS   2005-B39
 C/2004 Y8        26.738  18 33.3  -26 04   C3     HO   2005-B39
[IAUC 8471, 2005 January 21]

Further to IAUC 8471, following are the initial observations of additional comets found on SOHO website images (Kreutz sungrazers except for C/2004 Y10).

 Comet       2004 UT      R.A.(2000)Decl.   Inst.  F    MPEC
 C/2004 Y9   Dec. 28.034  18 35.2  -24 35   C2     XG   2005-B62
 C/2004 Y10       28.508  18 37.5  -22 16   C2     TH   2005-B62
 C/2004 Y11       28.866  18 39.8  -25 20   C3/2   HS   2005-B62

 Comet       2005 UT      R.A.(2000)Decl.   Inst.  F    MPEC
 C/2005 B2   Jan. 25.471  20 46.7  -20 26   C3     KC   2005-B62
[IAUC 8475, 2005 February 2]

Additional Kreutz comets (cf. IAUC 8475; YT = Y.-s. Tsai):

 Comet       2004 UT      R.A.(2000)Decl.   Inst.  F    MPEC
 C/2004 Y12  Dec. 31.113  18 57.3  -28 09   C3/2   TH   2005-C38

 Comet       2005 UT      R.A.(2000)Decl.   Inst.  F    MPEC
 C/2005 A2   Jan.  3.404  19 08.9  -25 51   C3     YT   2005-C38
 C/2005 A3         6.488  19 23.4  -26 01   C3     HS   2005-C38
 C/2005 A4        13.321  19 58.1  -25 03   C3     HS   2005-C38
 C/2005 A5        15.405  20 01.0  -22 56   C3     RK   2005-C38
[IAUC 8483, 2005 February 11]

An additional Kreutz sungrazing comet (cf. IAUC 8483):

 Comet       1997 UT      R.A.(2000)Decl.   Inst.  F    MPEC
 C/1997 E2   Mar.  5.281  23 22.2  - 6 57   C3     XL   2005-C38
[IAUC 8487, 2005 February 15]

Continuation to IAUC 8487 (C/2005 B3 is a Kreutz sungrazer, while C/2005 B4 belongs to the Meyer group):

 Comet       2005 UT      R.A.(2000)Decl.   Inst.  F    MPEC
 C/2005 B3   Jan. 26.821  20 53.6  -20 26   C3     XL   2005-D18
 C/2005 B4        30.688  20 56.6  -16 11   C2     BZ   2005-D18
[IAUC 8488, 2005 February 27]


Here is a list of the latest SOHO discoveries, with the date of the comet, date of discovery, coronagraph and discoverer.
Published by Jonathan Shanklin. mailto:jds@ast.cam.ac.uk