C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) is a comet discovered in 2002 by

LINEAR Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship ('' function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear ...

project. The comet brightened to a magnitude of 2.2.

History

The LINEAR project announced the discovery of this object on October 14, 2002. At that time, comet had a magnitude of 17.5. Before the end of the month, several observatories obtained follow-up observations. On October 29,

IAU Circular The International Astronomical Union Circulars (IAUCs) are notices that give information about astronomical phenomena. IAUCs are issued by the International Astronomical Union's Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams (CBAT) at irregular interval ...

No. 8003 announced this object to be a comet. Prediscovery observations were found on LINEAR images from October 12. At the time of discovery the comet was 6.9 AU from the Sun. The comet is considered to be dynamically new object from the

Oort Cloud The Oort cloud (), sometimes called the Öpik–Oort cloud, first described in 1950 by the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, is a theoretical concept of a cloud of predominantly icy planetesimals proposed to surround the Sun at distances ranging from ...

and that was the first time it came closer to Sun than

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...

. The comet brightened until mid February 2004, when the comet stayed to a magnitude of 7 until early March, when it entered the twilight and it couldn't be easily observed. It passed from a minimum solar elongation of 9° in late March. The comet was observed again on April 9 in twilight, when it had a magnitude of 4.6. The comet passed its perihelion on April 23 but it continued to brighten as it was approaching Earth. The closest approach was on 19 May 2004, when the comet had an estimated magnitude of 2.5 to 3. The comet was visible in the sky along with the equally bright comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT). On 30 April 2004, the comet was imaged and studied using the remote-sensing devices on the ''

Rosetta Rosetta or Rashid (; ar, رشيد ' ; french: Rosette ; cop, ϯⲣⲁϣⲓⲧ ''ti-Rashit'', Ancient Greek: Βολβιτίνη ''Bolbitinē'') is a port city of the Nile Delta, east of Alexandria, in Egypt's Beheira governorate. The Ro ...

'' spacecraft. The coma and tail were measured in wavelengths ranging from the ultraviolet to microwave. This occurred from a distance of about 95 million kilometres. The presence of water molecules around the comet was successfully identified.

References

External links

C/2002 T7 (LINEAR)
at cometography.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:LINEAR, 2002 T7 Non-periodic comets 20021014