166P/NEAT

For other comets discovered by the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking survey, see Comet NEAT (disambiguation).
166P/NEAT
Discovery
Discovered byNEAT
Discovery dateOctober 15, 2001
Designations
P/2001 T4
Orbital characteristics
EpochMarch 6, 2006
Aphelion19.1 AU
Perihelion8.559 AU
Semi-major axis13.83 AU
Eccentricity0.3811
Orbital period51.43 a
Inclination15.3813°
Last perihelionMay 20, 2002[1]
Next perihelionNovember 26, 2053[2][3][4][5]

166P/NEAT is a periodic comet and centaur in the outer Solar System. It was discovered by the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) project in 2001 and initially classified a comet with provisional designation P/2001 T4 (NEAT), as it was apparent from the discovery observations that the body exhibited a cometary coma. It is one of few known bodies with centaur-like orbits that display a coma, along with 60558 Echeclus, 2060 Chiron, 165P/LINEAR and 167P/CINEOS. It is also one of the reddest centaurs.[6]

166P/NEAT has a perihelion distance of 8.56 AU,[1] and is a Chiron-type comet with (TJupiter > 3; a > aJupiter).[1]

  1. ^ a b c "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 166P/NEAT (2001 T4)" (2008-03-02 last obs). Retrieved 2008-09-14.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference MPC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference NK1187 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Yoshida-166p was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Horizons2053 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Bauer, James M.; Fernández, Yanga R. & Meech, Karen J. (2003). "An Optical Survey of the Active Centaur C/NEAT (2001 T4)". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 115 (810): 981–989. Bibcode:2003PASP..115..981B. doi:10.1086/377012.