121P/Shoemaker-Holt
Sign in to save121P/Shoemaker–Holt, also known as Shoemaker-Holt 2, is a periodic comet in the Solar System with an orbital period of about 8 years. The comet was discovered by Carolyn S. Shoemaker, Eugene M. Shoemaker, and Henry E. Holt on 9 March 1989. The comet then had an apparent magnitude of 13, was diffuse and had a tail about 2 arcminutes long. It was recovered by James V. Scotti on 29 August 1995 in images obtained as part of the Spacewatch survey.
Key facts
- Comet.name
- 121P/Shoemaker-Holt
- Comet.image
- 121P 2006-08-01 Spitzer image Level-2-PBCD-MIPS-24um.png
- Comet.discoverer
- Carolyn S. ShoemakerEugene Merle ShoemakerHenry E. Holt
- Comet.discovery_date
- March 9, 1989
- Comet.designations
- 1989j; 1988 XI; 1995 Q3
- Comet.epoch
- March 6, 2006
- Comet.semimajor
- 4.013 AU
- Comet.perihelion
- 2.65 AU
- Comet.aphelion
- 5.376 AU
- Comet.eccentricity
- 0.3396
- Comet.period
- 8.039 a
- Comet.inclination
- 17.7218°
- Comet.rotation
- ~10 hours
- Comet.spectral_type
- (V–R)
- Comet.last_p
- September 8, 2013September 1, 2004
- Comet.next_p
- 2023-Jun-28
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- Jupiter-family comet
- Parent body
- Sun
- Diameter
- 3.24
- Orbital period
- 2946.166484590266
- Image
- 121P 2006-08-01 Spitzer image Level-2-PBCD-MIPS-24um.png
Show 14 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Eugene Merle Shoemaker
- time of discovery or invention
- 1989-03-09
- provisional designation
- 1988 XI
- absolute magnitude
- 6.0
- epoch
- November 6, 2006
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.3406038298142783
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 4.021973812676748
- periapsis
- 2.652074128666313
- apoapsis
- 5.391873496687183
- orbital inclination
- 17.82702553259715
- longitude of ascending node
- 99.09927639087128
- argument of periapsis
- 7.391217241062686
- mean anomaly
- 96.76248090532613
- time of periapsis
- 2453253.615616086
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
2 sectionsContents
- References
- External links
121P/Shoemaker–Holt, also known as Shoemaker-Holt 2, is a periodic comet in the Solar System with an orbital period of about 8 years. The comet was discovered by Carolyn S. Shoemaker, Eugene M. Shoemaker, and Henry E. Holt on 9 March 1989. The comet then had an apparent magnitude of 13, was diffuse and had a tail about 2 arcminutes long. It was recovered by James V. Scotti on 29 August 1995 in images obtained as part of the Spacewatch survey.
The nucleus of the comet is estimated to have a radius of 3.87 km based on infrared imaging by the Spitzer Space Telescope, when the comet displayed dust emission. Observations of the comet from the Isaac Newton Telescope indicate an effective radius of 3.61 kilometers. The rotational period was calculated to be 10 hours, but with high uncertainty.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “121P/Shoemaker-Holt” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.