Key facts
- Discovered by
- Quanzhi Ye, Lin Chi-Sheng
- Discovery site
- Lulin Observatory ( D35 ), 0.41-m Ritchey–Chrétien
- Discovery date
- 11 July 2007
- Alternative designations
- CK07N030
- Epoch
- 6 December 2008 ( JD 2454806.5)
- Aphelion
- ~64,000 AU (inbound), ~2,400 AU (outbound)
- Perihelion
- 1.212 AU
- Semi major axis
- 1200 AU
- Orbital period
- 42,000 years (outbound)
- Inclination
- 178.37°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 338.54°
- Argument of periapsis
- 136.86°
- Last perihelion
- 10 January 2009
- T jupiter
- –1.365
- Earth moid
- 0.211 AU
- Jupiter moid
- 0.101 AU
- Mean radius
- 6.10 ± 0.25 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 41.45 ± 0.05 hours
via Wikipedia infobox
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Comet Lulin, formal designation C/2007 N3, (Traditional Chinese:鹿林彗星) is a non-periodic comet discovered by Quanzhi Ye and Lin Chi-Sheng from the Lulin Observatory. It peaked in brightness at magnitude between +4.5 and +5, becoming visible to the naked eye, and arrived at perigee for observers on Earth on February 24, 2009, and at 0.411 AU (61.5 million km; 38.2 million mi) from Earth.
Discovery
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Comet Lulin” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.