Comet Section        

 
 

UPDATE ON TWO CLOSE-APPROACHING COMETS

2016-Mar-23

Just a quick update on comets 252P/LINEAR and P/2016 BA14 (PANSTARRS). Both comets have now passed the point of closest approach to Earth. 252P passed within 0.036 AU of Earth on 21st while P/2016 BA14 passed within 0.024 AU on the 22nd.

P/2016 BA14 peaked at 12th magnitude and still shows only the most tenuous hint of cometary activity. For the most part, this comet was an imaging target and it looks like it’ll never get bright enough for easy visual observation. 252P, on the other hand, has definitely surprised. Based on its observed apparitions in 2000 and 2010, the prediction was for 252P to only get up to 10th magnitude. The caveat in that prediction is that it was never observed at perihelion so we really had no idea how bright it could get. The most recent magnitude estimates reported to the Comet Section from Luis Mansilla and Willian Souza showed the comet brightening from magnitude 7.0 on the 16th to 4.9 on the 20th. The observation from the 20th also reported a coma diameter of 1°.

P/2016 BA14 is a northern hemisphere object and will remain so. For the rest of the month it will travel through the constellations of Ursa Major (23-24), Canes Venectica (24-25), Ursa Major (25-26), Bootes (26-31), Hercules (31) as it fades from magnitude ~13 to ~15 at the end of the month.

252P took a far southern route and was invisible to northern observers. That is now changing as it moves northward through Ara (21-24), Scorpius (24-26), Ophiuchus (26-30) and Serpens (30-31). Though its recent brightness suggests a naked eye object, a near Full Moon and large coma will probably conspire to keep it a binocular or small telescope object. Since this is the first time 252P has been observed around perihelion, it may rapidly fade. The only way to know is to get out and observe it.

Frank Melillo submitted this video of P/2016 BA14 racing across the sky on March 22 over a span on 10 minutes.

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As always, the Comet Section solicits all types of comet observations.

- Carl Hergenrother (ALPO Comet Section Coordinator)

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