Comet ATLAS, formally designated as C/2019 E3, is an Oort cloud comet with a very distant perihelion of 10.30 AU (1.541 billion km).[1] Precovery observations of this comet all the way to 2016 (and later 2012)[1] have revealed that the comet had produced some cometary activity more than 20 AU (3.0 billion km) from the Sun, making it the fourth known distant comet to produce such activity at large distances after C/2010 U3 (Boattini), C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli–Bernstein), and C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS).[2]
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
|---|---|
| Epoch | 17 May 2022 (JD 2459716.5) |
| Observation arc | 4,667 days (12.78 years) |
| Earliest precovery date | 19 March 2012 |
| Number of observations | 980 |
| Perihelion | 10.314 AU |
| Eccentricity | 1.00154 |
| Inclination | 84.298° |
| 347.25° | |
| Argument of periapsis | 280.66° |
| Mean anomaly | –0.001° |
| Last perihelion | 14 November 2023 |
| TJupiter | 0.417 |
| Earth MOID | 10.07 AU |
| Jupiter MOID | 8.331 AU |
| Physical characteristics[1][2] | |
Mean diameter | ~3.0 km (1.9 mi) |
| Comet total magnitude (M1) | 6.4 |
| Comet nuclear magnitude (M2) | 7.8 |
References
- ^ a b c d "C/2019 E3 (ATLAS) – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
- ^ a b M. T. Hui; R. Weryk; M. Micheli; Z. Huang; R. Wainscoat (2024). "Serendipitous Archival Observations of a New Ultradistant Comet C/2019 E3 (ATLAS)". Astronomical Journal. 167 (3). Bibcode:2024AJ....167..140H. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ad2500.
External links
- C/2019 E3 at the JPL Small-Body Database
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