42P/Neujmin, also known as Neujmin 3, is a
periodic comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...
2 km in diameter.
This comet and
53P/Van Biesbroeck are fragments of a parent comet that split in March 1845.
The comet did not come within 1 AU of a planet in the 20th century, but will pass 0.04 AU from asteroid 4 Vesta
Vesta ( minor-planet designation: 4 Vesta) is one of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, with a mean diameter of . It was discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers on 29 March 1807 and is named after Vesta, t ...
on July 17, 2036.[
The ]comet nucleus
The nucleus is the solid, central part of a comet, once termed a ''dirty snowball'' or an ''icy dirtball''. A cometary nucleus is composed of rock, dust, and frozen gases. When heated by the Sun, the gases sublime and produce an atmosphere ...
is estimated to be 2.2 kilometers in diameter.[
]
References
External links
Orbital simulation
from JPL (Java)
Horizons Ephemeris
Periodic comets
0042
Comets in 2015
19290802
{{comet-stub