115P/Maury

115P/Maury
Discovery
Discovered byAlain Maury
Discovery dateAugust 16, 1985
Orbital characteristics
EpochMarch 13, 2013 (2456364.5)[1]
Aphelion6.4797164 AU
Perihelion2.0396989 AU
Semi-major axis4.259707 AU
Eccentricity0.52116457
Orbital period8.79 a
3211.205 d
Inclination11.687384°
Last perihelion2020-Jul-29[2]
Next perihelion2029-May-18[3]

115P/Maury, is a periodic Jupiter-family comet, discovered on August 16, 1985, from the Palomar Observatory by Alain Maury. When the comet was first announced on 1985 September 6, the confirmation came quickly from other observers located at the Palomar Observatory. To the initial announcement of the comet, several confirmations were announced in multiple different reports were compiled by S. Singer-Brewster, D. Schneeberger, and M. Gallup that found the 15th-magnitude trail of the comet on a plate exposed with the 0.46-m Schmidt telescope. These came from the staff at Palomar Observatory, who used the 1.5-m reflector and a CCD to detect the comet. The comet was continued to be followed and detected, leading to Scientist giving the comet a 8.6 to 8.8 orbital period.[4]

The nucleus of the comet has a radius of about 1.1 kilometers based on observations by Keck, assuming a geometric albedo of 0.04.[5]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference jpl was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "115P/Maury Orbit". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 2014-06-17.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Horizons2029 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "115P/Maury". cometography.com. Retrieved 2019-08-01.
  5. ^ Meech, K.J.; Hainaut, O.R.; Marsden, B.G. (August 2004). "Comet nucleus size distributions from HST and Keck telescopes". Icarus. 170 (2): 463–491. Bibcode:2004Icar..170..463M. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2004.03.014.