323P/SOHO

323P/SOHO
Comet 323P SOHO by Hubble Space Telescope in March 2021
Discovery[1]
Discovered bySOHO
Discovery date12 March 2004
Designations
P/1999 X3, P/2004 E2, P/2008 K10, P/2012 Q2
Orbital characteristics[3]
Epoch12 February 2021
Earliest precovery date12 December 1999
Aphelion5.125 AU
Perihelion0.039 AU
Semi-major axis2.582 AU
Eccentricity0.9848
Orbital period4.15 years
Inclination5.37°
324.23°
Argument of
periapsis		353.17°
Last perihelion17 January 2021
Next perihelion14 March 2025[2]
Earth MOID0.022 AU
Jupiter MOID0.221 AU
Physical characteristics
Mean diameter
172±6 m [4]
0.522 hours [4]
Comet total
magnitude (M1)		23.6 [3]

323P/SOHO is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 4.15 years discovered in images obtained by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). It is considered to be a sungrazing comet due to its perihelion being very close to the Sun.[5] 323P/SOHO has the smallest perihelion of all numbered comets.[6]

  1. ^ Green, Daniel (1 July 2004). "IAUC 8365: C/2004 A2, A3, B3-B10, C3-C8, D2-D4, E1-E4, F5". Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. Retrieved 26 March 2023.
  2. ^ "Horizons Batch for 323P/SOHO (#90001277) on 2025-Mar-14" (Perihelion occurs when rdot flips from negative to positive). JPL Horizons. Retrieved 2023-08-18. (JPLK212/6 Soln.date: 2022-Jul-06)
  3. ^ a b "Small-Body Database Lookup: 323P/SOHO". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 26 March 2023.
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Hui2022 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Pavlov, S.; Medvedev, Yu. (22 February 2022). "Determination of sunskirters' orbits on the example of comet 323P/SOHO". Astronomy at the Epoch of Multimessenger Studies: Proceedings of the VAK-2021 conference, Aug 23–28, 2021. pp. 105–108. Bibcode:2022aems.conf..105P. doi:10.51194/VAK2021.2022.1.1.028. ISBN 978-5-8037-0848-3. S2CID 247178307.
  6. ^ "Small-Body Database Query, numbered comets with q < 0.2 au". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 26 March 2023.