Discovery of a comet by its Lyman-α emission [Comet C/1997 K2 (SOHO)].

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Comets: Discoveries, Comets: Lyman Alpha

Scientific paper

Several searches for near-Earth objects have been initiated, as a result of increased awareness of the hazard of impacts on the Earth. These programs mainly search for asteroids. So amateur astronomers can still contribute to the discovery of comets, especially out of the orbital plane of the Solar System. An ideal way to search for comets would be to use a spaceborne instrument capable of imaging the whole sky on a daily basis in a systematic and repeatable way. Such an instrument already exists on the solar observatory SOHO; it operates at the Lyman-α wavelength of neutral hydrogen, which is the main component of the emission cloud of a comet. The authors report the discovery, using archival data from this satellite, of a hitherto unnoticed comet which reached a perihelion of 1.546 AU on 26 June 1997. They derive the water production rate of the comet as a function of time and find that it increases after perihelion, like that of Comet 1P/Halley.

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