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IAUC 7788: C/2002 A1

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                                                  Circular No. 7788
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
Mailstop 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
IAUSUBS@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions)
CBAT@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science)
URL http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html  ISSN 0081-0304
Phone 617-495-7440/7244/7444 (for emergency use only)


COMETS C/2002 A1 (LINEAR) AND C/2002 A2 (LINEAR)
     Two objects of asteroidal appearance separated by < 1 degree
and having similar, somewhat unusual motion were reported by LINEAR
on Jan. 8.  Further observations were made following placement of
the objects on the NEO Confirmation Page, and prediscovery
observations in Nov.-Dec. 2001 were identified at the Minor Planet
Center in LINEAR and NEAT data.  Orbit computations for the two
objects gave very similar results (basically differing only in T)
and showed that the objects were only 0.7 AU from Jupiter at
discovery.  Observations by T. B. Spahr and P. Berlind with the
1.2-m reflector at the F. L. Whipple Observatory on 2002 Jan. 11.4
UT showed that the objects had faint, narrow tails around p.a. 250
deg.  Independent observations by R. H. McNaught with the 1.0-m
reflector at Siding Spring on Jan. 11.6 showed that the first
object, now designated C/2002 A1, was slightly diffuse with a very
faint 25" tail in p.a. 260 deg, and that the second object, C/2002
A2, was almost stellar with a very narrow 20" tail in p.a. 250 deg.
The respective discovery observations and orbital elements from
MPEC 2002-A62 (which also contains all the relevant astrometry and
ephemerides) are given below.  The 2001 Dec. 13 and 17 observations
of C/2002 A1 originally appeared on MPS 45271 under the designation
2001 XG_115.  The minimum distances from Jupiter were < 0.4 AU
around 2001 July 9 and 18 for C/2002 A1 and C/2002 A2, respectively.

     2002 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.        m2
     Jan.  8.32291    7 07 18.51   +29 45 55.5   18.7
           8.32291    7 04 14.25   +29 39 58.4   18.4

                    Epoch = 2001 Nov. 27.0 TT
     T = 2001 Dec.  2.2052 TT         Peri. =  19.1742
     e = 0.743544                     Node  =  82.0753  2000.0
     q = 4.698533 AU                  Incl. =  14.1563
       a = 18.321040 AU    n = 0.0125684    P =  78.420 years

                    Epoch = 2001 Nov. 27.0 TT
     T = 2001 Dec.  9.0143 TT         Peri. =  19.3367
     e = 0.739211                     Node  =  82.2686  2000.0
     q = 4.708179 AU                  Incl. =  14.2299
       a = 18.053597 AU    n = 0.0128487    P =  76.709 years

                      (C) Copyright 2002 CBAT
2002 January 11                (7788)            Daniel W. E. Green

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