141P/Machholz

Periodic comet other comets discovered by Donald E. Machholz Comet Machholz November 2025 141P/Machholz 141P 2021-01-10 image ZTF-sso-395-zg-size-13arcmin.png Comet Machholz 2 photographed from the Zwicky Transient Facility on 10 January 2021 IAUC_6053 Donald E. Machholz 13 August 1994 P/1994 P1, P/1999 P1 Machholz 2 1994 XXVI, 1994o jpldata MPC 30 April 2026 (JD 2461160.5) 26.61 years 1,815 0.807 AU 5.305 AU 3.056 AU 0.73581 5.343 years 13.961° 241.77° 153.65° 1.266° 2.709 0.099 AU e6km unit 0.56 AU e6km unit 0.25 km mi (A)Fernandez_2015 17.3 16 December 2020 23 April 2026Horizons2026 Yoshida1 May 2026 (I)Horizons2026-I Comet 141P/Machholz or 141P/Machholz 2 is a Jupiter-family comet with an orbital period of 5.3 years. It was discovered by Donald Machholz on 13 August 1994.Machholz_1994 A few days after the discovery a number of condensations were found near the main component of the comet, indicating that the comet had fragmented between 1987 and 1989, during its previous perihelion.Sekanina_1999 The comet was last observed by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in July 2025.MPC Observational history The comet was discovered visually on 13 August 1994 by Donald E. Machholz, using a 0.25m reflector telescope.Machholz_1994 The comet then had an estimated apparent magnitude of 10.IAUC_6053 On 18 August 1994, Michael Jäger reported that a fragment was located 48 arcminutes northeast of the comet.IAUC_6066 Three more fragments were then found.IAUC_6071 The fragments were given the letters A to E,IAUC_6081 with A being the main component. Component D was found to be split in two on 5 October 1994, with the two components being 7 arcseconds apart.IAUC_6090 The fragments formed two groups; And B formed the southern group and C, D, and E formed the north group. A dust trail connected all the components.Sekanina_1999 Fragment B faded rapidly in November 1994 while fragment D was observed during the 1999 apparition.MPEC_2015-R12 Zdenek Sekanina estimated that the first break-up of the comet took place in late 1987, about 600 days before the 1989 perihelion, that lead to the creation of fragment B. The next break-up event took place around the 1989 perihelion and lead to the creation of fragments C and D. Fragment D split 600 days after perihelion, leading to the creation of fragment E. Fragment D split further during the 1994 perihelion.Sekanina_1999 Fragment A was recovered by Robert H. McNaught at Siding Spring Observatory on 3 August 1999 as a stellar object, while no other fragment was visible at that point.IAUC_7231 During the 2015 apparition one more fragment was found, fragment H. It was originally considered to be a new comet, but further observations led to it being linked with 141P/Machholz.MPEC_2015-R12 During the 2020-21 apparition one more fragment was found, fragment I.MPEC_2022-S308 The comet experienced an outburst on 3 March 2021, during which it brightened by 2.8 magnitudes.Gillan_2024 Orbit and meteor showers The orbit of the comet is currently stable, lying at a 9:4 orbital resonance with Jupiter. Meteor streams from the comet intersected with the orbit of Earth during the 18th and 19th century but currently no meteor showers associated with the comet are predicted.Asher_1996 On 13 December 2036 the comet will pass 0.127 AU e6km unit from Earth. An even closer approach is calculated to have taken place on 25 December 1978, when the comet passed about 0.11 AU e6km unit from Earth.jpldata See also 73P/Schwassmann–Wachmann 332P/Ikeya–Murakami References D. J. Asher D. I. Steel The orbital evolution of P/Machholz 2 and its debris https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-pdf/280/4/1201/18539920/280-4-1201.pdf Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 1996 280 4 1201–1209 1996MNRAS.280.1201A 10.1093/mnras/280.4.1201 free J. A. Fernández A. Sosa Jupiter family comets in near-Earth orbits: Are some of them interlopers from the asteroid belt? Planetary & Space Science 2015 118 14–24 2015P&SS..118...14F 10.1016/j.pss.2015.07.010 A. F. Gillan A. Fitzsimmons L. Denneau etal Dust Production Rates in Jupiter-family Comets: A Two Year Study with ATLAS Photometry The Planetary Science Journal 2024 5 1 25 2024PSJ.....5...25G 2312.06817 10.3847/PSJ/ad1394 free D. E. Machholz T. Kojima S. Nakano D. W. Green Comet Machholz (1994o) http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/06000/06053.html IAU Circular 1994-08-13 6053 1 1994IAUC.6053....1M 0081-0304 H. Luthen M. Jager M. Varady etal D. W. Green Periodic Comet Machholz 2 (1994o) http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/06000/06066.html IAU Circular 1994-08-30 6066 1 1994IAUC.6066....1L 0081-0304 P. Pravec W. Johnson T. Puckett etal D. W. Green Periodic Comet Machholz 2 (1994o) http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/06000/06071.html IAU Circular 1994-09-06 6071 3 1994IAUC.6071....3P 0081-0304 R. A. Keen C. S. Morris D. W. Green Periodic Comet Machholz 2 (1994o) http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/06000/06081.html IAU Circular 1994-09-21 6081 1 1994IAUC.6081....1K 0081-0304 P. Pravec A. Hale C. S. Morris etal B. G. Marsden Periodic Comet Machholz 2 (1994o) http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/06000/06090.html IAU Circular 1994-10-06 6090 1 1994IAUC.6090....1P 0081-0304 R. H. McNaught B. G. Marsden Comet P/1999 P1 (Machholz 2) http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/07200/07231.html IAU Circular 1999-08-04 7231 2 1999IAUC.7231....2M 0081-0304 141P/Machholz 2 – Small-Body Database Lookup https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?des=141P ssd.jpl.nasa.gov Jet Propulsion Laboratory 2023-07-20 D. E. Machholz The Discovery of Periodic Comet Machholz 2, P/141 https://donmachholz.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/The-Discovery-of-Periodic-Comet-Machholz-2-141P.pdf 1994-08-13 2025-11-21 141P/Machholz Orbit http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=141P Minor Planet Center 2025-11-21 W. Hasubick H. Abe etal G. V. Williams Comet 141P-H/Machholz https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K15/K15R12.html Minor Planet Electronic Circulars 2015-R12 2015-09-06 1523-6714 M. Jäger E. Prosperi S. Prosperi New Comet Fragment 141P/Machholz I https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K22/K22SU8.html Minor Planet Electronic Circulars 2022-S308 2022-09-28 1523-6714 Z. Sekanina Multiple fragmentation of comet Machholz 2 (P/1994 P1) Astronomy and Astrophysics 1999 342 285–299 1999A&A...342..285S 0004-6361 S. Yoshida 141P/Machholz 2 http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/0141P/index.html www.aerith.net 2026-03-02 2026-04-20 Horizons Batch for 141P/Machholz 2 (90001063) on 2026-Apr-22 JPL Horizons Perihelion occurs when rdot flips from negative to positive https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api?format=text&COMMAND=%2790001063%27&START_TIME=%272026-Apr-22%27&STOP_TIME=%272026-Apr-23%27&STEP_SIZE=%273%20hours%27&QUANTITIES=%2719%27 2026-04-20 (JPL#K202/13 Soln.date: 2024-Aug-26) Horizons Batch for 141P-I/Machholz 2 (90001075) on 2026-May-01 JPL Horizons Perihelion occurs when rdot flips from negative to positive https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api?format=text&COMMAND=%2790001075%27&START_TIME=%272026-May-01%27&STOP_TIME=%272026-May-02%27&STEP_SIZE=%273%20hours%27&QUANTITIES=%2719%27 2026-04-20 (JPL#3 Soln.date: 2023-Apr-26) External links 1003394 141P 141P/Machholz at the Minor Planet Center database 141P/Machholz at Gary W. Kronk's Cometography 141P/Machholz at Seiichi Yoshida's website 140P/Bowell–Skiff 142P/Ge–Wang Category:Periodic comets 0141 0141 0141 0141 0141