104P/Kowal

Jupiter-family comet other comets of the same name Comet Kowal October 2025 104P/Kowal 104P 2022-02-12 image ZTF-sso-506-zg-fov-9.3arcmin.png Comet Kowal 2 photographed from the Zwicky Transient Facility on 12 February 2022 IAUC_3321 Charles T. Kowal 13 January 1979 P/1979 B1, P/1991 X1 Kowal 2 1979 II, 1991 XX 1979a, 1991f1 2025 11 21 jpldata MPC 49.42 yearsobs_arc 11 January 1973IAUC_8255 2,241 5.345 AU 1.072 AU 3.209 AU 0.6659 5.75 yr 5.70° 227.3° 207.2° 241.5 2.789 0.111 AU e6km unit 0.288 AU e6km unit Lamy_2004 2.0 1.0 km 10.5 11 January 2022 12 October 2027Horizons2027 104P/Kowal, also known as Kowal 2, is a periodic Jupiter-family comet discovered by Charles T. Kowal in 1979. The orbit was confirmed after new sightings in 1991 and 1998. 2027 By July 2027, the comet should be around apparent magnitude 14.Van_Buitenen At the perihelion passage on 12 October 2027 the solar elongation will be 66 degrees at a magnitude of approximately 11,Van_Buitenen Yoshida The comet should be observable with small telescopes. Observational history In 2003, Gary Kronk and Brian Marsden noticed that an object observed by Leo Boethin in 1973 was actually 104P/Kowal. From Boethin's report, it was apparent that comet Kowal 2 had been in a short, major outburst to apparent magnitude 9.5 in 1973.IAUC_8255 During the 1997–98 apparition, the comet was brighter than expected, reaching an apparent magnitude of 13 in mid January. The comet wasn't observed during the 2010 apparition. During the 2022 apparition, it brightened to a magnitude of 9.2 according to Chris Wyatt.Weekly Information about Bright Comets (2022 Mar. 12: North) http://www.aerith.net/comet/weekly/20220312n.html Seiichi Yoshida www.aerith.net 16 July 2023 Orbit +104P/Kowal closest Jupiter approach around 1924-May-04jpldata Date ofclosest approach Jupiter distance(AU) Sun distance(AU) Velocitywrt Jupiter(km/s) Velocitywrt Sun(km/s) Uncertaintyregion(3-sigma) Reference 1924-May-04 ± 3 days 0.005 AU e3km e3mi unit 5.32 AU e6km e6mi unit 19.6 21.9 ± 800000 km Horizons The comet was in an orbit with a perihelion distance of 1.50 AU and an orbital period of 6.38 years until an approach to Jupiter on 15 January 1996 reduced both to 1.40 AU and 6.18 years respectively. A further encounter with Jupiter on 4 July 2007 at a distance of 0.300 AU reduced the perihelion distance to 1.18 AU and the orbital period to 5.90 years. One more close approach to Jupiter on 30 May 2019 reduced the perihelion distance to 1.07 AU and orbital period to 5.74 years.jpldata Notes "obs_arc" Observation arc from the Minor Planet Center database only covered dates from 27 January 1979 until 12 June 2022 (43.37 years). This figure included its entire arc up to 11 January 1973. References C. T. Kowal B. G. Marsden Comet Kowal (1979a) http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/03300/03321.html IAU Circular 1 1979-01-30 3321 1979IAUC.3321....1K L. Boethin G. W. Kronk B. G. Marsden Comet 104P/Kowal http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/08200/08255.html IAU Circular 2003-12-11 8255 1 2003IAUC.8255....1B 104P/Kowal 2 – Small-Body Database Lookup https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=104P&view=OPC ssd.jpl.nasa.gov Jet Propulsion Laboratory 2026-04-29 https://web.archive.org/web/20260429162621/https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=104P&view=OPC live 2023-07-16 P. L. Lamy I. Toth Y. R. Fernández H. A. Weaver Comet II https://www.lpi.usra.edu/books/CometsII/7022.pdf University of Arizona Press 2004 The Sizes, Shapes, Albedos, and Colors of Cometary Nuclei 238 104P/Kowal Orbit http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=104P Minor Planet Center 2017-04-07 G. van Buitenen 104P/Kowal https://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/comet/104 astro.vanbuitenen.nl 2026-04-26 Horizons Batch for 104P/Kowal 2 (90000956) on 2027-Oct-12 JPL Horizons Perihelion occurs when rdot flips from negative to positive https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api?format=text&COMMAND=%27DES%3D104P%3BCAP%27&START_TIME=%272027-Oct-09%27&STOP_TIME=%272027-Oct-15%27&STEP_SIZE=%273%20hours%27&QUANTITIES=%2719%27 2023-07-06 (JPL#K222/11 Soln.date: 2023-Apr-05) 104P/Kowal 2 http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/0104P/index.html Seiichi Yoshida Aerith Comet Catalog 2016-01-24 2016-03-29 Kronk Gary 104P/Kowal 2 http://cometography.com/pcomets/104p.html cometography.com 16 July 2023 External links 1000056 104P 104P/Kowal at the Minor Planet Center database 104P/Kowal at Seiichi Yoshida's website 104P/Kowal at Gideon van Buitenen's website 103P/Hartley 105P/Singer Brewster Category:Periodic comets 104P 0104 104P Category:Discoveries by Charles T. Kowal 19790113 104P 104P