HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

4015 Wilson–Harrington is an active asteroid known both as
comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...
107P/Wilson–Harrington and as
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 ...
4015 Wilson–Harrington. It passed from Earth on 20 July 2022 and then passed
perihelion An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. The line of apsides (also called apse line, or major axis of the orbit) is the line connecting the two extreme values. Apsides perta ...
(closest approach to the Sun) on 24 August 2022. It seldom gets brighter than
apparent magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the Irradiance, brightness of a star, astronomical object or other celestial objects like artificial satellites. Its value depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance, and any extinction (astronomy), ...
16. It will return to perihelion on 25 November 2026.


Observational history

This
near-Earth object A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body orbiting the Sun whose closest approach to the Sun ( perihelion) is less than 1.3 times the Earth–Sun distance (astronomical unit, AU). This definition applies to the object's orbit a ...
is considered both an Apollo asteroid with the designation ''4015 Wilson–Harrington'' and a periodic
comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...
known as ''Comet Wilson–Harrington'' or ''107P/Wilson–Harrington''. It was initially discovered in 1949 as a comet and then lost to further observations. Thirty years later it was rediscovered as an asteroid, after which it took over a decade to determine that these observations were of the same object. Therefore, it has both a comet designation and an asteroid designation, and with a name length of 17 characters it is currently the asteroid with the longest name, having one more character than the 16-character limit imposed by the
IAU The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...
. The comet was discovered on 19 November 1949, by Albert G. Wilson and Robert G. Harrington at
Palomar Observatory The Palomar Observatory is an astronomical research observatory in the Palomar Mountains of San Diego County, California, United States. It is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Research time at the observat ...
. Only three photographic observations were obtained and the comet was lost (insufficient observations to determine a precise enough orbit to know where to look for future appearances of the comet.) On 15 November 1979, an apparent Mars-crosser asteroid was found by Eleanor F. Helin, also of
Palomar Observatory The Palomar Observatory is an astronomical research observatory in the Palomar Mountains of San Diego County, California, United States. It is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Research time at the observat ...
. It received the designation 1979 VA, and when re-observed on 20 December 1988, received the permanent number 4015. On 13 August 1992, it was reported that asteroid (4015) 1979 VA and comet 107P/Wilson–Harrington were the same object. By then, enough observations of the asteroid had accumulated to obtain a fairly precise orbit, and the search of old photographic plates for prediscovery images turned up the 1949 plates with the images of the lost comet. Although the 1949 images show cometary features, all subsequent images show only a stellar image, suggesting it might be an inactive comet that undergoes only infrequent outbursts.


Orbital and physical properties

The
eccentricity Eccentricity or eccentric may refer to: * Eccentricity (behavior), odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being "normal" Mathematics, science and technology Mathematics * Off-Centre (geometry), center, in geometry * Eccentricity (g ...
is 0.624, which is somewhat higher than that of a typical asteroid-belt
minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...
and more typical of periodic comets. Its Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance (MOID) of less than 0.05 AU and its large size make it a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA). There are only eight other objects that are cross-listed as both comets and asteroids:
2060 Chiron 2060 Chiron is a ringed small Solar System body in the outer Solar System, orbiting the Sun between Saturn and Uranus. Discovered in 1977 by Charles Kowal, it was the first-identified member of a new class of objects now known as centaurs— ...
(95P/Chiron), 7968 Elst–Pizarro (133P/Elst–Pizarro), 60558 Echeclus (174P/Echeclus), 118401 LINEAR ( 176P/LINEAR), (282P/2003 BM80), (288P/2006 VW139), (362P/2008 GO98), and (433P/2005 QN173).M.P.C. 133823
/ref> As a dual status object,
astrometric Astrometry is a branch of astronomy that involves precise measurements of the positions and movements of stars and other celestial bodies. It provides the kinematics and physical origin of the Solar System and this galaxy, the Milky Way. History ...
observations of 4015 Wilson–Harrington should be reported under the minor planet designation.


Exploration

A flyby of 4015 Wilson–Harrington was formerly planned by Deep Space 1.Comet Space Missions
/ref> It was also considered for the NEAR mission.


See also

* Marco Polo (spacecraft) * List of asteroids visited by spacecraft


References


External links


Cometography.com: Wilson–Harrington


– Seiichi Yoshida @ aerith.net * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson-Harrington 004015 004015 004015 # 0107 004015 Discoveries by Eleanor F. Helin Named minor planets 004015 19791115 04015