Discovered by Minoru Honda Aphelion 5.511 AU Semi-major axis 3.0205 AU | Discovery date December 3, 1948 Perihelion 0.5296 AU | |
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Epoch 2011-Jun-08
(JD 2455720.5) | ||
45P/Honda–Mrkos–Pajdušáková is a short-period comet discovered by Minoru Honda December 3, 1948. It is named after Minoru Honda, Antonín Mrkos, and Ľudmila Pajdušáková. The object revolves around the Sun on an elliptical orbit with a period of 5.25 years. The nucleus is 1.3 kilometers in diameter. On August 19 and 20, 2011, it became the fifteenth comet detected by ground radar telescope.
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During the 1995 perihelion passage, the comet was visible to Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) on January 16, 1996, when the comet was around apparent magnitude 7 and 4.3° from the Sun.
It is green because it emits emits diatomic carbon which glows green in the near vacuum of space.
2011 passage
During the 2011 perihelion passage, the comet was recovered on 5 June at magnitude 21. On 8 July, the comet had a magnitude of approximately 18, and, as of 22 July, nuclear condensation was noticed around magnitude 16. It was expected to reach a peak magnitude of around 7.3 in late September near perihelion.
On August 15, 2011, the comet made a close approach of only 0.0600 AU (8,980,000 km; 5,580,000 mi) from the Earth and it was studied by the Goldstone Deep Space Network. Radar observations on August 19 and 20 detected echoes from the nucleus and coma.
2017 passage
45P/Honda–Mrkos–Pajdušáková came to perihelion on December 31, 2016. By February 4, 2017 it was around magnitude 7 and the coma was about 100,000km across. The comet required binoculars to be seen because of the low surface brightness. The comet passed 0.08318 AU (12,444,000 km; 7,732,000 mi) from Earth on February 11, 2017, which was the same day as a lunar eclipse.
The next notable close approach will be in October 2032 when the comet might brighten to magnitude 7.