120P/Mueller

Periodic comet other comets of the same name Comet Mueller December 2025 120P/Mueller IAUC_4472 Jean E. Mueller Palomar Observatory 18 October 1987 P/1987 U2P/1995 O2 Mueller 11987 XXXI, 1987a1 jpldata MPC 6 September 2007 (JD 2454349.5) 34.14 years 147 2.744 AU 5.527 AU 4.136 AU 0.33654 8.412 years 8.791° 4.443° 30.008° 125.57° 2.917 1.754 AU 0.265 AU jpldata 0.77 km miSnodgrass_2007 610 90 kg/m3Paradowski_2022 6.6 16.4 7 May 2021 5 April 2029Horizons2029 120P/Mueller, also known as Mueller 1, is a Jupiter-family comet with an 8.4-year orbit around the Sun. It is one of 15 comets discovered by American astronomer, Jean Mueller. Observational history Jean Mueller first spotted the comet on photographic plates exposed from the Palomar Observatory on the night of 18 October 1987.IAUC_4472 She described the new comet as a diffuse 17th-magnitude object within the constellation Pisces.Reported initial position upon discovery was: α 1 12 47.4, δ 12 25 50Kronk_2017 A condensation and an apparent tail about 20–30 arcseconds in length towards the south-southwest was also noted.Kronk_2017 Orbital calculations using follow-up observations until 27 October 1987 helped Daniel W. E. Green to determine Mueller's comet as periodic, at the time having an orbital period of roughly 8.21 years.IAUC_4480 James V. Scotti recovered the comet from the Kitt Peak Observatory on 30 July 1995 as P/1995 O1.IAUC_6199 It was a 22nd-magnitude object at the time of its recovery.IAUC_6199 The comet was observed from every subsequent apparition since. It most recently came to perihelion in May 2021MPC and underwent a 1.4 magnitude outburst in August 2021.Kelley_2021 Physical characteristics Initial estimates of the size of its nucleus in 2004 was approximately 3.0 km mi in diameter.Lamy_2004 Optical photometry obtained in 2007 revised this to half of the previous estimate, currently about 1.54 km mi in diameter.Snodgrass_2007 Notes References Horizons Batch for 120P/Mueller 1 on 2029-Apr-05 JPL Horizons Perihelion occurs when rdot flips from negative to positive https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons_batch.cgi?batch=1&COMMAND=%27120P%27&START_TIME=%272029-Apr-03%27&STOP_TIME=%272029-Apr-07%27&STEP_SIZE=%273%20hours%27&QUANTITIES=%2719%27 2021-09-13 (JPL#20/Soln.date: 2021-Apr-15) J. E. Mueller N. Reid A. Maury D. W. Green Comet Mueller (1987a1) http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/04400/04472.html IAU Circular 1987-10-19 4472 2 1987IAUC.4472....2M E. M. Shoemaker C. S. Shoemaker H. Holt etal D. W. Green Periodic Comet Mueller (1987a1) http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/04400/04480.html IAU Circular 1987-10-27 4480 1 1987IAUC.4480....1S J. V. Scotti S. Nakano B. G. Marsden Comet P/1995 O1 (Mueller) http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/06100/06199.html IAU Circular 1995-08-03 6199 1 1995IAUC.6199....1S 120P/Mueller 1 – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=120P ssd.jpl.nasa.gov Jet Propulsion Laboratory 2025-12-05 M. S. P. Kelley Small Apparent Outburst of Comet 120P/Mueller 1 https://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=14876 The Astronomer's Telegram 2021 14876 1 2021ATel14876....1K G. W. Kronk M. Meyer D. A. J. Seargent Cometography: A Catalog of Comets 6: 1983–1994 2017 Cambridge University Press Cambridge 978-0-521-87216-4 320–322 P. L. Lamy I. Toth Y. R. Fernández H. A. Weaver Comets II The Sizes, Shapes, Albedos, and Colors of Cometary Nuclei https://physics.ucf.edu/~yfernandez/papers/comets2chapter/comets2reprint.pdf 2004 223–264 University of Arizona Press 10.2307/j.ctv1v7zdq5.22 2004come.book..223L j.ctv1v7zdq5.22 978-0-8165-2450-1 9 October 2022 5 December 2025 https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://physics.ucf.edu/~yfernandez/papers/comets2chapter/comets2reprint.pdf dead 120P/Mueller Orbit http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=120P Minor Planet Center 2014-06-17 M. L. Paradowski A New Indirect Method of Determining Density of Cometary Nuclei https://acta.astrouw.edu.pl/Vol72/n2/pdf/pap_72_2_4.pdf Acta Astronomica 2022 72 2 141–159 2022AcA....72..141P 0001-5237 10.32023/0001-5237/72.2.4 free C. S. Snodgrass S. C. Lowry A. Fitzsimmons Optical observations of 23 distant Jupiter Family Comets, including 36P/Whipple at multiple phase angles https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-pdf/385/2/737/18228737/mnras0385-0737.pdf Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 2007 385 2 737–756 2008MNRAS.385..737S 0712.4204 55536237 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.12900.x free External links 1000116 120P 120P/Mueller at the Minor Planet Center database 120P/Mueller at Seiichi Yoshida's website 120P/Mueller at Gary W. Kronk's Cometography 119P/Parker–Hartley 121P/Shoemaker–Holt Category:Periodic comets 0120 0120 120P # 120P 120P * *