Electronic Telegram No. 2244
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
CBAT Director:  Daniel W. E. Green; Room 209; Dept. of Earth and Planetary
 Sciences; Harvard University; 20 Oxford St.; Cambridge, MA  02138; U.S.A.
e-mail:  cbat@iau.org; cbatiau@eps.harvard.edu
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COMET 81P/WILD
     T. L. Farnham, University of Maryland; and N. H.Samarasinha and
B. E. A. Mueller, Planetary Science Institute, report on observations of
comet 81P/Wild obtained at the Kitt Peak 2.1-m f/8 telescope during March
20-25.  When enhanced by removing a temporally averaged coma profile
(Schleicher and Farnham, 2004, in Comets II, ed by Festou et al., Tucson:
University of Arizona Press, p. 449), images obtained with a narrowband
cometary CN filter reveal at least two arc-shaped features that repeat
periodically.  It was determined that the interval of repetition is 13.5
+/- 0.1 hours, presumably representing the rotation period of the nucleus.
Observational coverage, spanning as much as 6.2 hours per night, is
sufficient to rule out any aliases of this period.


NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes
      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2010 CBAT
2010 April 16                    (CBET 2244)              Michael Rudenko