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Related papers: Will Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) Survive Perihelion?

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We examine the rise and sudden demise of comet C/2010 X1 (Elenin) on its approach to perihelion. Discovered inbound at 4.2 AU, this long-period comet was predicted to become very bright when near perihelion, at 0.48 AU on 2011 September 10.…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-24 Jing Li , David Jewitt

We identify a sample of 27 long-period comets for which both non-gravitational accelerations and Lyman-alpha based gas production rates are available. Seven of the 27 comets (i.e. 25 percent) did not survive perihelion because of nucleus…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2022-10-05 David Jewitt

The third macroscopic interstellar object detected in the solar system recently passed through perihelion, with the best-fitting models of its trajectory now featuring non-gravitational accelerations. We assess how much mass loss is…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-12-23 John C. Forbes , Harvey Butler

3I/ATLAS is the third interstellar comet identified as passing through the Solar System. Its high outgassing activity and favourable perihelion passage on October 29, 2025 UT provided an excellent opportunity to investigate the composition…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2026-04-22 N. Biver , D. Bockelée-Morvan , R. Moreno , J. Crovisier , G. Paubert , V. Zakharov , J. Boissier , M. A. Cordiner , N. X. Roth

This comprehensive study of comet C/1995 O1 focuses first on investigating its orbital motion over a period of 17.6 yr (1993-2010). The comet is suggested to have approached Jupiter to 0.005 AU on -2251 November 7, in general conformity…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2017-09-12 Zdenek Sekanina , Rainer Kracht

The discovery of interstellar comet 2I/Borisov offered the unique opportunity to obtain a detailed analysis of an object coming from another planetary system, and leaving behind material in our interplanetary space. We continuously observed…

Observations of the sungrazing comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) were carried out using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) at a heliocentric distance of 0.58-0.54 AU (pre-perihelion) on 2013 November 16-17. Temporally resolved…

We have developed a 3-step criterion to decide if a comet coming from the Oort Cloud will disintegrate. If we apply this criterion to comet C/2013 US10 we find that the probability of disintegration is 92%. The Secular Light Curve of this…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-10-01 Ignacio Ferrin

The complete sample of large-perihelion nearly-parabolic comets discovered during the period 1901-2010 is studied starting from their orbit determination. Next, an orbital evolution that includes three perihelion passages…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2017-10-18 Małgorzata Królikowska , Piotr A. Dybczyński

We observed near-Sun comet 323P/SOHO for the first time using ground and space telescopes. In late December 2020, the object was recovered at Subaru showing no cometary features on its way to perihelion. However, in our postperihelion…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2022-06-22 Man-To Hui , David J. Tholen , Rainer Kracht , Chan-Kao Chang , Paul A. Wiegert , Quan-Zhi Ye , Max Mutchler

We present pre-perihelion infrared 8 to 31 micron spectrophotometric and imaging observations of comet C/2012 K1 (Pan-STARRS), a dynamically new Oort Cloud comet, conducted with NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy…

We describe pre-perihelion optical observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS taken during July - September 2025 using the Nordic Optical Telescope. Fixed aperture photometry of the comet is well described by a power law function of…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-11-07 David Jewitt , Jane Luu

Context. During their journey to perihelion, comets may appear in the field-of-view of space-borne optical instruments, showing in some cases a nicely developed plasma tail extending from their coma and exhibiting an oscillatory behaviour.…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2018-08-08 G. Nisticò , V. Vladimirov , V. M. Nakariakov , K. Battams , V. Bothmer

Most Kreutz family sungrazing comets are discovered only days before perihelion, severely limiting observational opportunities to study their physical nature and decay. Kreutz sungrazer C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) was discovered a month before…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2024-12-25 David Jewitt , Jane Luu , Jing Li

We present imaging observations of the disintegrating long-period comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard). High resolution observations with Hubble Space Telescope show no evidence for surviving fragments, and place a 3 sigma upper limit to their…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2023-05-19 David Jewitt , Yoonyoung Kim , Michael Mattiazzo , Max mutchler , Jing Li , Jessica Agarwal

Granvik et al. (2016) report an absence of asteroids on orbits with perihelia near the Sun that they attribute to the 'supercatastrophic disruption' of these bodies. Here we investigate whether there is evidence for this process among other…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-03-18 Paul Wiegert , Peter Brown , Petr Pokorný , Quanzhi Ye , Cole Gregg , Karina Lenartowicz , Zbigniew Krzeminski , David Clark

Observations of active asteroid P/2017 S5 when near perihelion reveal the ejection of large (0.1 to 10 mm) particles at 0.2 to 2 m/s speeds, with estimated mass-loss rates of a few kg/s. The protracted nature of the mass loss (continuous…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2019-01-30 David Jewitt , Yoonyoung Kim , Jayadev Rajagopal , Susan Ridgway , Ralf Kotulla , Wilson Liu , Max Mutchler , Jing Li , Harold Weaver , Stephen Larson

Object 1I/2017 U1 (`Oumuamua) is the first interstellar small body ever discovered in the solar system. By the time of discovery, it had already passed perihelion. To investigate the behavior of `Oumuamua around perihelion, we searched for…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-01-08 Man-To Hui , Matthew M. Knight

We observed comet 322P/SOHO 1 (P/1999 R1) from the ground and with the Spitzer Space Telescope when it was between 2.2 and 1.2 AU from the Sun. These are the first observations of any SOHO-discovered periodic comet by a non-solar…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2016-05-25 Matthew M. Knight , Alan Fitzsimmons , Michael S. P. Kelley , Colin Snodgrass

We combine ground- and space-based observations of long-period comet C/2021 O3 (Panstarrs) (perihelion distance 0.287 au) in order to investigate its reported near-perihelion destruction. Pre-perihelion photometric observations show a…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-06-12 David Jewitt. Jing Li , Michael Jaeger , Yoonyoung Kim