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IAUC 7832: NON-KREUTZ NEAR-SUN GROUPS

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                                                  Circular No. 7832
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)
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Phone 617-495-7440/7244/7444 (for emergency use only)


NON-KREUTZ NEAR-SUN COMET GROUPS
     It is well-known that some 94 percent of the faint comets
observed near the sun by the SOLWIND, SMM, and SOHO coronagraphs
are members of the Kreutz sungrazing group.  Although there may be
significant differences in the other orbital elements, in several
instances pairs of these comets have come to perihelion within only
a matter of hours (Sekanina 2002, Ap.J. 566, 577).  Less well known
is the fact that there are also interrelations among perhaps half
of the remaining near-sun SOHO comets.  These include the close
temporal pairs C/2000 C2-2000 C5, C/2000 C3-2000 C4, and C/2000 Y6-
2000 Y7 (IAUC 7364, 7567).  The pairs C/1999 J6-1999 U2 (separated
by 4.5 months) and C/1997 L2-2001 X8 (separated by 4.5 years) were
pointed out on MPEC 2001-C28 by B. G. Marsden, Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics, and M. Meyer, Kelkheim, Germany,
respectively.
     Meyer remarked that his pair is also likely to be associated
with C/2001 E1, and more recently he has suggested that C/2001 T1,
as well as the C/2000 C2-2000 C5 pair, belong to a six-member group,
the ambiguous sense of orbital motion of these poorly observed
comets having caused the wrong solutions to be adopted.  Marsden
adds that the wrong solutions were also probably adopted for the
poorly observed C/2000 C3-2000 C4 pair, which with his pair
mentioned above would then form a four-member group.
     Possible parabolic orbital solutions (equinox 2000.0) for the
members of the Meyer and Marsden groups are collected here as
follows:

Comet         T (TT)     q (AU)   Peri.   Node    Incl.   Ref.
                                  (deg)   (deg)   (deg)
C/1997 L2   June 10.87   0.0381   57.30   72.62   71.69   MPC 35205
C/2000 C2   Feb.  3.86   0.0370   55.44   73.71   71.35
C/2000 C5   Feb.  7.89   0.0358   54.73   65.16   72.22
C/2001 E1   Mar. 15.64   0.0357   58.28   72.24   73.37   MPC 44504
C/2001 T1   Oct.  9.17   0.0364   57.41   72.56   72.87
C/2001 X8   Dec. 12.86   0.0371   56.15   74.35   72.28   MPC 44505

C/1999 J6   May  11.59   0.0492   22.47   81.69   26.53   MPC 39791
C/1999 U2   Oct. 25.23   0.0492   22.22   82.05   27.05   MPC 36654
C/2000 C3   Feb.  4.59   0.0487   23.47   81.85   24.97
C/2000 C4   Feb.  5.17   0.0487   23.05   81.95   24.97

                      (C) Copyright 2002 CBAT
2002 February 18               (7832)            Daniel W. E. Green

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