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4015 Wilson–Harrington

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Periodic comet with 4 year orbit

4015 Wilson–Harrington
107P/Wilson–Harrington
4015 Wilson–Harrington at 19 November 1949, from the 48-inch Schmidt telescope at Palomar. The image was enhanced by ESO to show the tail.
Discovery
Discovered byAlbert G. Wilson and
Robert G. Harrington
Discovery date19 November 1949
Designations
MPC designation(4015) Wilson–Harrington
Alternative designations107P/1949 W1
107P/1979 VA
1949 III · 1949g
Minor planet categoryNEO · Apollo · Comet
Orbital characteristics
Epoch 2022-Aug-09 (JD 2459800.5)
Uncertainty parameter 0
Observation arc24241 days (66.37 yr)
Aphelion4.2833 AU (640.77 Gm)
Perihelion0.96664 AU (144.607 Gm)
Semi-major axis2.6249 AU (392.68 Gm)
Eccentricity0.63175
Orbital period (sidereal)4.25 yr (1553.4 d)
Average orbital speed16.39 km/s
Mean anomaly356.37°
Mean motion0° 13 47.568 / day
Inclination2.7992°
Longitude of ascending node266.77°
Time of perihelion2026-Nov-25
2022-Aug-24 (previous)
Argument of perihelion95.441°
Earth MOID0.045552 AU (6.8145 Gm)
TJupiter3.080
Physical characteristics
Dimensions4 km
Mean radius2 ± 0.25 km
Synodic rotation period3.5736 h (0.14890 d)
Geometric albedo0.05 ± 0.01
Spectral type(orange)
B−V=0.666
U−B=0.279
Apparent magnitude~11 (1979)
16 (2009)
Absolute magnitude (H)15.99

4015 Wilson–Harrington is an active asteroid known both as comet 107P/Wilson–Harrington and as asteroid 4015 Wilson–Harrington. It passed 0.4 AU (60 million km) from Earth on 20 July 2022 and then passed perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on 24 August 2022. It seldom gets brighter than apparent magnitude 16. It will return to perihelion on 25 November 2026.

This near-Earth object is considered both an Apollo asteroid with the designation 4015 Wilson–Harrington and a periodic comet known as Comet Wilson–Harrington or 107P/Wilson–Harrington. It was initially discovered in 1949 as a comet and then lost to further observations. Thirty years later it was rediscovered as an asteroid, after which it took over a decade to determine that these observations were of the same object. Therefore, it has both a comet designation and an asteroid designation, and with a name length of 17 characters it is currently the asteroid with the longest name, having one more character than the 16-character limit imposed by the IAU.

The comet was discovered on 19 November 1949, by Albert G. Wilson and Robert G. Harrington at Palomar Observatory. Only three photographic observations were obtained and the comet was lost (insufficient observations to determine a precise enough orbit to know where to look for future appearances of the comet.)

On 15 November 1979, an apparent Mars-crosser asteroid was found by Eleanor F. Helin, also of Palomar Observatory. It received the designation 1979 VA, and when re-observed on 20 December 1988, received the permanent number 4015.

On 13 August 1992, it was reported that asteroid (4015) 1979 VA and comet 107P/Wilson–Harrington were the same object. By then, enough observations of the asteroid had accumulated to obtain a fairly precise orbit, and the search of old photographic plates for prediscovery images turned up the 1949 plates with the images of the lost comet.

Although the 1949 images show cometary features, all subsequent images show only a stellar image, suggesting it might be an inactive comet that undergoes only infrequent outbursts.

The eccentricity is 0.624, which is somewhat higher than that of a typical asteroid-belt minor planet and more typical of periodic comets. Its Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance (MOID) of less than 0.05 AU and its large size make it a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA).

There are only eight other objects that are cross-listed as both comets and asteroids: 2060 Chiron (95P/Chiron), 7968 Elst–Pizarro (133P/Elst–Pizarro), 60558 Echeclus (174P/Echeclus), 118401 LINEAR (176P/LINEAR), (323137) 2003 BM80 (282P/2003 BM80), (300163) 2006 VW139 (288P/2006 VW139), (457175) 2008 GO98 (362P/2008 GO98), and (248370) 2005 QN173 (433P/2005 QN173). As a dual status object, astrometric observations of 4015 Wilson–Harrington should be reported under the minor planet designation.

A flyby of 4015 Wilson–Harrington was formerly planned by Deep Space 1. It was also considered for the NEAR mission.

See also

References

  1. ^ "4015 Wilson-Harrington (1979 VA) // 107P". JPL Small-Body Database. NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Archived from the original on 4 November 2020. Retrieved 11 April 2016.
  2. ^ "Horizons Batch for 4015 Wilson-Harrington (1979 VA) on 2026-Nov-25" (Perihelion occurs when rdot flips from negative to positive). JPL Horizons. Retrieved 29 April 2023. (JPL#321/Soln.date: 2023-Apr-19
  3. ^ "107P/(4015) Wilson-Harrington". Seiichi Yoshida. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
  4. Jewitt, David; Hsieh, Henry; Agarwal, Jessica (2015). "The Active Asteroids" (PDF). In Michel, P.; et al. (eds.). Asteroids IV. University of Arizona. pp. 221–241. arXiv:1502.02361. Bibcode:2015aste.book..221J. doi:10.2458/azu_uapress_9780816532131-ch012. ISBN 9780816532131. S2CID 119209764. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  5. Lutz D. Schmadel (2012), Dictionary of Minor Planet Names (6th ed.), Springer, pp. 8–9, ISBN 9783642297182
  6. ^ "Dual-Status Objects". Minor Planet Center. 6 March 2008. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  7. M.P.C. 133823
  8. Comet Space Missions
  9. Farquhar, Robert; Jen, Shao-Chiang; McAdams, Jim V. (1993). "Extended-mission opportunities for a Discovery-class asteroid rendezvous mission". NASA Sti/Recon Technical Report A. 95. SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System: 435. Bibcode:1993STIA...9581370F. Retrieved 24 May 2020 – via Harvard University.

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