Satellite captures periodic comet

 

NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory discovers rare comet.

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The joint European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spots new comets on a regular basis, but it has just found one slightly different.
 
The unit’s Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment (LASCO) has found a rare type of comet called a periodic comet. Periodic comets are ones which fly by the Sun at regular intervals. While other documented comets are believed to be periodic, this is the first time that one has been conclusively proven - something which requires it to have been seen revolving around the Sun more than twice, in which each incident is less than two hundred years apart.
 
First seen in September 1999, the new comet has an orbit that takes four years to travel around the Sun.

First documentation

The body, which was documented by German PhD student Sebastian Hoenig, has been given the official designation of P/2007 R5 (SOHO).
 
The comet was first noticed in September 1999 and then again in September 2003. Hoenig, recognising the similarities between the two occurrences, realised that the object could actually be the same one. He then calculated the orbit and made predictions for its return.
 
Commenting on the finding, Karl Battams, who runs SOHO's comet discovery programme, said: “It is quite possibly an extinct comet nucleus of some kind.”
 
 

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