308P/Lagerkvist–Carsenty

308P/Lagerkvist–Carsenty
Comet Lagerkvist–Carsenty imaged from ESO on 24 November 1997
Discovery[1]
Discovered byClaes-Ingvar Lagerkvist
Uri Carsenty
Discovery siteEuropean Southern Observatory
Discovery date5 October 1997
Designations
  • P/1997 T3, P/2014 O2
  • P/2014 QD604
PJ97T030
Orbital characteristics[2][3]
Epoch21 January 2022 (JD 2459600.5)
Observation arc18.50 years
Earliest precovery date1 October 1997
Number of
observations		375
Aphelion9.005 AU
Perihelion4.199 AU
Semi-major axis6.602 AU
Eccentricity0.36397
Orbital period16.963 years
Inclination4.852°
63.063°
Argument of
periapsis		333.60°
Mean anomaly142.35°
Last perihelion7 May 2015
Next perihelion1 May 2032
TJupiter2.883
Earth MOID3.263 AU
Jupiter MOID0.293 AU
Comet total
magnitude (M1)		10.7
Comet nuclear
magnitude (M2)		13.5

Comet Lagerkvist–Carsenty is a distant Jupiter-family comet with a 17-year orbit around the Sun. It was co-discovered by two European astronomers, Claes-Ingvar Lagerkvist[a] and Uri Carsenty.

Observational history

The comet was discovered as an asteroid-like object from photographic plates taken during a joint astronomical survey between the Uppsala Astronomical Observatory and the European Southern Observatory on the night of 5 October 1997.[1] At the time, the comet formerly known as P/1997 T3, was a 19th-magnitude object within the constellation Pisces.[b] It was initially thought to be a Jupiter trojan with no apparent activity,[4] until further orbital calculations had shown it was not gravitationally bound to Jupiter itself, but in a centaur-like orbit as far away as Saturn's distance to the Sun.[5][6]

In 29 July 2014, Erwin Schwab and his colleagues at the Tenerife Observatory later recovered the comet on its second apparition as P/2014 O2, where like its 1997 apparition, it exhibited very little cometary activity.[7]

Orbit

Lagerkvist–Carsenty is currently in a heliocentric orbit whose perihelion is at a distance of 4.2 AU (630 million km) and aphelion of 9.01 AU (1.348 billion km) from the Sun.[3] It completes one revolution roughly every 17 years, placed between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn.

Orbital reconstructions in 2000 by the discoverers themselves had revealed that the comet made a close encounter with Saturn on 12 October 1954,[8] where it approached the giant planet at a distance of 0.0104 AU (1.56 million km).[2] The encounter had turned the orbit of the former centaur into that of a Jupiter-family comet in the present day.[9] The comet will make two close encounters with Jupiter by 2085 and 2188, respectively.[2]

Naming

The comet initially did not have a formal name since it was thought to be an asteroid upon discovery. However by January 1998, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) had decided to rename P/1997 T3 as Lagerkvist–Carsenty, after the two discoverers who recognized its cometary nature before its discovery was announced.[10][c]

The comet received its official numerical designation, 308P, on January 2017.[11]

See also

  • 450P/LONEOS, another former centaur that became a short-period comet after a close encounter with Saturn

Notes

  1. ^ 308P is Lagerkvist's third comet discovery after P/1996 R2 and C/1996 R3.
  2. ^ Reported initial position upon discovery was: α = 1h 15m 20.5s, δ = 3° 04′ 03″[1]
  3. ^ It was one of two comets renamed by the IAU that year, the other one was C/1997 L1 (Zhu–Balam).[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c U. Carsenty; A. Nathues; C. I. Lagerkvist; et al. (7 October 1997). B. G. Marsden (ed.). "Comet 1997 T3". IAU Circular. 6754 (3). Bibcode:1997IAUC.6754....3C.
  2. ^ a b c "308P/Lagerkvist–Carsenty – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 31 October 2025.
  3. ^ a b "308P/Lagerkvist–Carsenty Orbit". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 31 October 2025.
  4. ^ M. Tichy; Z. Moravec; W. Offutt; P. Pravec (7 October 1997). B. G. Marsden (ed.). "Comet P/1997 T3". IAU Circular. 6755 (1). Bibcode:1997IAUC.6755....1T.
  5. ^ G. Hahn; C. I. Lagerkvist (22 October 1997). B. G. Marsden (ed.). "Comet P/1997 T3". IAU Circular. 6759 (2). Bibcode:1997IAUC.6759....2H.
  6. ^ J. Ticha; M. Tichy; Z. Moravec; et al. (22 October 1997). B. G. Marsden (ed.). "Comet P/1997 T3". Minor Planet Electronic Circulars. 1997-U08. Bibcode:1997MPEC....U...08T.
  7. ^ E. Schwab; P. Ruiz; D. Koschny; et al. (July 2014). D. W. Green (ed.). "Comet P/2014 O2 = P/1997 T3 (Lagerkvist–Carsenty)". Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. 3925. Bibcode:2014CBET.3925....1S.
  8. ^ C. I. Lagerkvist; G. Hahn; O. Karlsson; U. Carsenty (2000). "The orbital history of two periodic comets encountering Saturn". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 362: 406–409. Bibcode:2000A&A...362..406L.
  9. ^ J. Horner; N. W. Evans; M. E. Bailey; D. J. Asher (2003). "The populations of comet-like bodies in the Solar system" (PDF). Monthly Notice of the Royal Astronomical Society. 343 (4): 1057–1066. arXiv:astro-ph/0304319. Bibcode:2003MNRAS.343.1057H. doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06714.x.
  10. ^ a b B. G. Marsden (23 January 1998). "Comets C/1997 L1 and P/1997 T3". IAU Circular. 6811 (1). Bibcode:1998IAUC.6811....1M.
  11. ^ D. W. Green (January 2017). "Numbering of Short-Period Comets". Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. 4343. Bibcode:2017CBET.4343....1G.


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