C/2002 J5 (LINEAR)

C/2002 J5 (LINEAR) was reported as a magnitude 18.2 asteroid by LINEAR on May 15th 2002. On May 16th observations by Milos Tichy and M.Kocer at Klet showed it to have a coma of 10 arcseconds diameter. Later, observations were found from Haleakala NEAT images taken on August 6th 2001 and from LINEAR images on August 25th 2001. The data show that the comet will reach perihelion at 5.73AU on September 19th 2003. The orbit is somewhat hyperbolic with an excentricity of 1.0013 and retrograde, with an inclination of 117 degrees.

The light curve

The comet is moderately bright intrinsically with an absolute magnitude of 5.5. Although there is an upward trend in the brightness through to perihelion, the observed magnitude depends quite strongly on the geocentric distance, with the comet brightest at opposition each year and then fading as it moves away from opposition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Observations by:

• Ramón Naves & Montse Campàs - MPC 213
• Alberto Sánchez - MPC 442