astro.wikisort.org - Comet

P/2011 P1 (McNaught) was a Jupiter-family comet that passed extremely close to Jupiter on 4 December 2010 and disintegrated by 2012.[3] It was discovered on 1 August 2011 by astronomer Robert H. McNaught at the Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia.[4][5][6][7] With an observation arc of 415 days, the comet's nominal orbit solution suggests that its 2010 approach distance was 0.00084 astronomical units (126,000 km; 78,000 mi) from Jupiter's center—well within Jupiter's Roche limit at which the comet would be torn apart by tidal forces.[2][3] The earliest precovery image of the comet was taken by Pan-STARRS 1 on 6 December 2010, two days after the comet's close pass with Jupiter.[1]

P/2011 P1 (McNaught)

Discovery
Discovered by	Robert H. McNaught
Discovery date	1 August 2011
Orbital characteristics A
Epoch	12 August 2011 (JD 2455793.5)
Observation arc	1.14 yr (415 days)
Number of observations	161[1]
Orbit type	Jupiter family · periodic
Aphelion	10.692 AU
Perihelion	4.952 AU
Semi-major axis	7.822 AU
Eccentricity	0.3669
Orbital period	21.88 yr (7,990 days)
Inclination	6.309°
Node	10.082°
Argument of periapsis	342.120°
TJupiter	2.933
Jupiter MOID	0.001862 AU (278,600 km)
Comet total magnitude (M1)	6.2±1.0[2]
Comet nuclear magnitude (M2)	12.3±0.9

See also

• Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9

References

External links

• Jupiter vs. Comet P/2011 P1: No Contest, Gareth Williams, Minor Planet Center, 29 August 2011 (archived)
• P/2011 P1 (McNaught), Seiichi Yoshida, updated 6 April 2013
• P/2011 P1 at the JPL Small-Body Database
  • Close approach · Discovery · Ephemeris · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters

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