125P/Spacewatch

Jupiter-family comet other comets of the same name Comet Spacewatch December 2025 125P/Spacewatch 125P 2024-06-03 image ZTF-sso-442-zr-size-8.5arcmin.png Comet 125P/Spacewatch photographed from the Zwicky Transient Facility on 3 June 2024 IAUC_5341 SpacewatchTom Gehrels Kitt Peak Observatory 8 September 1991 P/1991 R2, P/1996 F1 Spacewatch 1nasa-pds 1990 XXIX, 1991x jpldata MPC 11 August 2015 (JD 2457245.5) 33.12 yearsobs_arc 1,297 1.523 AU 4.728 AU 3.126 AU 0.51269 5.526 years 9.988° 153.19° 87.145° 161.39° 2.975 0.554 AU 0.810 AU jpldata 0.83 km miTancredi_2006 12.9 16.7 7 March 2024 15 September 2029Horizons2029 125P/Spacewatch is a Jupiter-family comet with a 5.53-year orbit around the Sun. It was discovered on 8 September 1991 by Tom Gehrels using the 0.91 m Spacewatch telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory.cometography It was the first comet discovered with the use of a CCD,spacewatch1 and also the faintest comet upon discovery up to that point.cometography Its nucleus has a diameter of 1.66 km mi.Tancredi_2006 Observational history The comet was discovered in images taken by the 0.91 m Spacewatch telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory by Tom Gehrels on September 8, 1991, as an essentially stellar object with an apparent magnitude of 21, with a tail more than 5 arcminutes long.IAUC_5341 Brian G. Marsden calculated a parabolic and an elliptical orbit, with the elliptical orbit suggesting an orbital period of 5.58 years and a perihelion date on 18 December 1990.IAUC_5343 The comet was recovered on 21 March 1996 by the Spacewatch telescope from James V. Scotti and J. Montani, with an apparent magnitude of 17.6, a tail measuring 0.66 arcminutes long and a coma measuring 15 arcseconds across. The orbit calculated after the recovery indicates an orbital period of 5.56 years.IAUC_6349 During that apparition the comet experienced an outburst in late July 1996 and brightened to a magnitude of 14.5.cometography During the 2002 apparition the comet brightened to a magnitude of 18.cometography Notes "obs_arc" Observation arc from the Minor Planet Center database covering dates from 8 September 1991 until 21 October 2024. References G. W. Kronk 125P/Spacewatch https://cometography.com/pcomets/125p.html Cometography.com 2013-06-02 Horizons Batch for 125P/Spacewatch (90001031) on 2029-Sep-15 JPL Horizons Perihelion occurs when rdot flips from negative to positive https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api?format=text&COMMAND=%27DES%3D125P%3BCAP%27&START_TIME=%272029-Sep-14%27&STOP_TIME=%272029-Sep-17%27&STEP_SIZE=%273%20hours%27&QUANTITIES=%2719%27 2026-04-16 (JPL#58 Soln.date: 2024-Oct-29) J. V. Scotti T. Gehrels B. G. Marsden Comet Spacewatch (1991x) http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/05300/05341.html IAU Circular 1991-09-10 5341 1 1991IAUC.5341....1S 0081-0304 J. V. Scotti T. Gehrels B. G. Marsden Comet Spacewatch (1991x) http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/05300/05343.html IAU Circular 1991-09-12 5343 1 1991IAUC.5343....1S 0081-0304 J. V. Scotti J. Montani S. Nakano B. G. Marsden Comet P/1996 F1 (Spacewatch) http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/06300/06349.html IAU Circular 1996-03-22 6349 1 1996IAUC.6349....1S 0081-0304 125P/Spacewatch – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=125P ssd.jpl.nasa.gov Jet Propulsion Laboratory 2013-06-02 125P/Spacewatch Orbit http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=125P Minor Planet Center 2014-06-17 Periodic Comet Names and Designations https://pds-smallbodies.astro.umd.edu/data_sb/resources/periodic_comets.shtml Planetary Data System: Small Body Node NASA 2026-09-22 SPACEWATCH® News and History https://spacewatch.lpl.arizona.edu/news-history spacewatch.lpl.arizona.edu 2024-08-11 G. Tancredi J. A. Fernández H. Rickman J. Licandro Nuclear magnitudes and the size distribution of Jupiter family comets Icarus 2006 182 2 527–549 2006Icar..182..527T 10.1016/j.icarus.2006.01.007 External links 1000162 125P 125P/Spacewatch at the Minor Planet Center database 125P/Spacewatch at Gary W. Kronk's Cometography 125P/Spacewatch at Seiichi Yoshida's website 124P/Mrkos 126P/IRAS Category:Periodic comets 0125 0125 # 125P 125P 125P * *