A Manx comet is a class of rocky minor celestial bodies that have a long-period comet orbit. Unlike most bodies on a long-period comet orbit which typically sport long, bright tails, a Manx comet is tailless, more typical of an inner Solar System
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...
. The nickname comes from the
Manx breed of tailless cat. Examples include C/2013 P2 (PANSTARRS), discovered on 4 August 2013, which has an orbital period greater than 51 million years, and
C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS), discovered on 22 September 2014, which is thought to originate from the
Oort cloud and could help explain the formation of the
Solar System
The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...
.
References
External links
JPL Small-Body Database Browser: C/2013 P2 (PANSTARRS)JPL Small-Body Database Browser: C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS)
Comets
Oort cloud
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