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P/2013 R3 (Catalina–PanSTARRS)

Hubble image of P/2013 R3 disintegrating into multiple fragments on 29 October 2013
Discovery
Discovered by	R. E. Hill (Catalina Sky Survey) B. Bolin et al. (Pan-STARRS 1)
Discovery site	Catalina Station Haleakalā Observatory
Discovery date	15 September 2013
Designations
Alternative designations	P/2013 R3
Orbital characteristics
Epoch	13 October 2013 (JD 2456578.5)
Observation arc	124 days
Earliest precovery date	1 September 2013
Orbit type	main-belt (outer) · Encke-type · periodic
Aphelion	3.862 AU
Perihelion	2.204 AU
Semi-major axis	3.033 AU
Eccentricity	0.2734
Orbital period	5.28 yr (1,929 days)
Inclination	0.899°
Longitude of ascending node	342.684°
Argument of periapsis	8.238°
Last perihelion	5 August 2013
TJupiter	3.184
Earth MOID	1.197 AU
Jupiter MOID	1.572 AU
Physical characteristics
Mean diameter	~800 m (precursor) ~400 m (largest fragment)
Geometric albedo	0.05 (assumed)
Spectral type	C B–V = 0.66±0.04 V–R = 0.38±0.03 R–I = 0.36±0.03
Comet total magnitude (M1)	7.2±1.0
Comet nuclear magnitude (M2)	>23.5 (post-disintegration) 16.0±0.9
Apparent magnitude	>28 (post-disintegration)

P/2013 R3 (Catalina–PanSTARRS) was an active main-belt asteroid that disintegrated from 2013 to 2014 due to the centrifugal breakup of its rapidly-rotating nucleus. It was discovered by astronomers of the Catalina and Pan-STARRS sky surveys on 15 September 2013. The disintegration of this asteroid ejected numerous fragments and dusty debris into space, which temporarily gave it a diffuse, comet-like appearance with a dust tail blown back by solar radiation pressure. Observations by ground-based telescopes in October 2013 revealed that P/2013 R3 had broken up into four major components, with later Hubble Space Telescope observations showing that these components have further broken up into at least thirteen smaller fragments ranging 100–400 meters (330–1,310 ft) in diameter. P/2013 R3 was never seen again after February 2014.

P/2013 R3 was originally an 800-meter (2,600 ft)-diameter carbonaceous C-type asteroid that gradually spun up due to continuous torquing by sunlight reflecting off its irregular surface, a phenomenon known as the YORP effect. The asteroid likely reached a rotation period shorter than 2 hours before it began breaking apart, which suggests it had a weakly-bound rubble pile internal structure resembling those of asteroids Bennu and Ryugu. It likely began disintegrating sometime in August 2013, one month before it was discovered.

Discovery

P/2013 R3 was first detected on 15 September 2013 09:06 UTC by astronomer Richard E. Hill at Catalina Station, Arizona, during routine observations for the Catalina Sky Survey using its 0.68-m Schmidt telescope. Hill did not report on the object's appearance. Concurrent survey observations by the 1.8-m Pan-STARRS 1 telescope at Haleakalā Observatory, Hawaii detected the object several hours later at 13:03 UTC. A group of astronomers investigating the Pan-STARRS 1 images, namely Bryce Bolin, Jan Kleyna, Larry Denneau, and Richard Wainscoat, noticed the object had a diffuse, comet-like appearance with two apparent nuclei separated 3 arcseconds apart and a tail extending more than 14 arcseconds out. They reported the object as a comet candidate to the Minor Planet Center, which alerted other astronomers for follow-up.

Follow-up observations from Cerro Tololo and South African Astronomical Observatory on 17 and 24 September 2013 confirmed the object's tail and split nucleus. Amateur astronomers were able to image P/2013 R3, with observers from Japan and Spain noting that the object had brightened by a magnitude or more after a week and a half since discovery. The Minor Planet Center announced the object as a new comet on 27 September 2013 and gave it the periodic comet designation P/2013 R3 (Catalina–PanSTARRS) that credited both Catalina Sky Survey and Pan-STARRS 1 for the discovery.

Orbit and classification

P/2013 R3 and its fragments orbit in the outer main asteroid belt at a semi-major axis of 3.03 AU from the Sun, completing one revolution every 5.28 years. It has a low orbital inclination of 0.90° with respect to the ecliptic and a modest orbital eccentricity of 0.273, which makes it come as close as 2.20 AU from the Sun at perihelion to as far as 3.86 AU from the Sun at aphelion. It last passed perihelion on 5 August 2013. The orbit of P/2013 R3 is very close to being in a 9:4 mean-motion resonance with Jupiter, which makes it subject to the planet's gravitational perturbations that can alter its orbit over millions of years.

P/2013 R3's orbit in the asteroid belt is unlike typical periodic comets, whose orbits were perturbed out of the Kuiper belt and Oort cloud by the planets. P/2013 R3's Tisserand parameter relative to Jupiter is greater than 3.08, which dynamically distinguishes it as an asteroid rather than a comet. Additionally, cometary volatile ices such as carbon monoxide are expected to have completely sublimated in the asteroid belt since the formation of the Solar System, which makes P/2013 R3 unlikely to be a traditional sublimating comet. For these reasons, P/2013 R3 is classified as an active asteroid, in recognition of its asteroid-like orbit and comet-like appearance.

Possible family

In 2018, an orbit analysis by Henry Hsieh and collaborators tentatively determined that one of the asteroid's fragments, P/2013 R3-B, may be related to the 290,000-year-old Mandragora asteroid family of C-type asteroids. However, they were unable to link the other fragment, P/2013 R3-A, to this same family, possibly due to orbital perturbations by the 9:4 Jupiter mean-motion resonance, non-gravitational acceleration by outgassing, or uncertainties in the orbit of P/2013 R3-A. The process by which the Mandragora family formed is unclear due to the unusually uniform size of most of its members; possible explanations include a cratering impact event or a cascading rotational fissioning of the parent body and followed by its fragments.

Activity and disintegration

Mechanism

The activity of P/2013 R3 was caused by the catastrophic rotational breakup of its nucleus, which progressively disintegrated into slow-moving fragments and dusty debris over several months. The combined cross-sectional areas of P/2013 R3's fragments suggest the asteroid's nucleus originally had a diameter of 800 m (2,600 ft) before it broke up. It is the first asteroid discovered while in the process of disintegrating.

Rotational breakup occurs when an asteroid rotates faster than the critical spin barrier period at 2.2 hours, below which centrifugal forces exceed the gravitational and interparticle van der Waals cohesive forces holding the asteroid together. Material along the asteroid's equator, where centrifugal forces are strongest, is ejected outward beyond the asteroid's gravitational escape speed (~0.5 m/s) and then disaggregates into discrete fragments due to interparticle cohesion.

The precursor of P/2013 R3 gradually spun up past the critical period due to a continuous yet subtle net torque on the asteroid's rotation, primarily caused by sunlight reflecting off the asteroid's irregular surface—a phenomenon known as the Yarkovsky–O'Keefe–Radzievskii–Paddack (YORP) effect. The YORP effect can spin up sub-kilometer-sized asteroids like P/2013 R3 below the critical period over a short timescale within one million years. Compared to the 150-million-year average rate of disruptive impact events for sub-kilometer main-belt asteroids, rotational breakup by the YORP effect occurs much more frequently by two orders of magnitude. Several active asteroids in the main belt are suspected of undergoing or approaching rotational breakup, such as 331P/Gibbs (P/2012 F5), 311P/PanSTARRS (P/2013 P5), and 6478 Gault.

In addition to the YORP effect, uneven outgassing of sublimating water ice may be in part responsible for spinning up P/2013 R3's precursor. Although there is no direct spectroscopic evidence of water sublimation in P/2013 R3, it is implied by the prolonged dust ejection of its fragments, whose subsurface ices are presumably exposed after the precursor's breakup. Without the YORP effect, constant water sublimation rates greater than 1×10 kg/s (1 g/s) can spin up sub-kilometer asteroids below the critical period in less than one million years and can be spectroscopically undetectable if the sublimation rate is below the observational lower limit of 1 kg/s.

Rotation period and internal structure

The rotation periods of P/2013 R3's precursor and fragments have not been photometrically measured due to heavy obscuration by surrounding debris. Depending on the precursor's size and density, the low relative speeds of P/2013 R3's fragments suggest that P/2013 R3's precursor had a rotation period between 0.48−1.9 hours before it began breaking up. This is well below the critical spin period, which implies that P/2013 R3's particles must have cohesion forces resisting centrifugal forces at a cohesive strength of 40–210 Pa, comparable to that of a pile of sand or talcum powder. This cohesive strength is characteristic of weakly-bound rubble pile asteroids like Bennu and Ryugu, whose internal structures have been thoroughly fractured by repeated meteoroid impacts over billions of years. If P/2013 R3 was a rubble pile of this cohesive strength, it should predominantly consist of micrometer-sized rock grains. However, this low cohesive strength fails to explain P/2013 R3's fragmentation according to computer simulations by Yun Zhang and collaborators in 2018, who find that rubble pile asteroids of P/2013 R3's size should begin fragmenting at higher cohesive strengths of at least 800 Pa.

Dust

P/2013 R3 continuously released dusty debris into space for the entire span of its disintegration, producing an enveloping dust cloud and tail that gave it its diffuse, comet-like appearance. The dust cloud has a spectrally neutral or gray color matching those of primitive, carbonaceous C-type asteroids. Because the dust cloud spans a large area for reflecting sunlight, it accounts for much of P/2013 R3's apparent brightness. Observations in October 2013 showed that the dust cloud initially had a scattering cross-sectional area of at least 30 km (12 sq mi) before reducing to 20 km (7.7 sq mi) by February 2014. During this time span, the total apparent magnitude of P/2013 R3 faded from magnitude 18 to 20.

In addition to the enveloping dust cloud, the individual fragments of P/2013 R3 each possessed their own comas and tails, sourced from dust ejected by rotational breakup and potentially sublimating water ice. Based on the fading rate of P/2013 R3's fragments, their dust ejection speed is inferred to be at least 0.13 m/s (0.43 ft/s).

Smaller dust particles were blown away by solar radiation pressure, leaving relatively large micrometer- to millimeter-sized particles behind.

Assuming that P/2013 R3's dust grains follow a similar size distribution to other fragmented asteroids and comets, the asteroid is estimated to have ejected a total of 2.3×10 kg of dust over the course of its disintegration. This dust mass is equivalent to a 340 m (1,120 ft)-diameter solid sphere, for an assumed uniform density of 1.0 g/cm.

The asteroidal dust production rate contributes at least 4–20% to the zodiacal cloud.

Fragments

When P/2013 R3 was discovered, it had already fragmented into two distinct co-moving components, named P/2013 R3-A and P/2013 R3-B. High-resolution observations by the 10-m Keck Telescope at Mauna Kea Observatory and the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in October 2013 revealed two more new fragments, named C and D, that had presumably split off from the main component A. Even higher-resolution observations by the Hubble Space Telescope starting in October 2013 revealed that component A was composed of many more smaller fragments, with component C having already split and component B later ejecting small fragments. Hubble observations continued until February 2014, when P/2013 R3 became unobservable as it entered conjunction with the Sun.

In total, at least thirteen fragments of P/2013 R3 have been identified. These fragments formed episodically over a period of at least 5 months. For an assumed geometric albedo of 0.05, the largest fragments, A1, A2, B1, and B2, all have diameters no larger than 400 m (1,300 ft). It is unknown which of these fragments is the largest in size and mass, as all of them are heavily obscured by the surrounding debris. With Hill spheres less than 20 km (12 mi) across, each fragment is separated far enough apart from each other (by several thousands of km) that their gravitational influence on each other is negligible. The fragments move at very low speeds of 0.2–0.5 m/s relative to each other, comparable to the gravitational escape speeds of the largest fragments, or less than the walking speed of a human.

Component A

P/2013 R3-A, also known as component A, was the brightest and presumed main component of P/2013 R3. It was the southwestern and trailing component of the pair of nuclei initially seen at discovery.

High-resolution observations by Hubble on 29 October 2013 revealed that component A was composed of four smaller fragments, named A1, A2, A3, and A4, that were embedded together in a 2,000 km (1,200 mi)-wide dust coma. Three of these fragments had just separated from each other a few days prior to these Hubble observations. Fragment A1 was the brightest fragment of component A and it is thought to be the parent body of all other fragments, potentially including components B, C, and D, but excluding A3. Fragment A3 is instead thought to have split off from fragment A2 around the time when it was first seen by Hubble on 29 October 2013.

By the time Hubble reobserved P/2013 R3 on 15 November 2013, fragment A3 had disappeared completely and fragment A1 had ejected two new fragments, named A5 and A6. Hubble observations on 13 December 2013 later found that fragment A2 had ejected another small fragment, named A7, which had separated sometime in between November and December at a relative speed of 0.46 m/s. The six remaining fragments of component A faded over time, with fragment A4 disappearing sometime in between 13 December 2013 and 14 January 2014. The fading eventually progressed to the point that the fragments of component A became unidentifiable by 13 February 2014.

Component B

P/2013 R3-B, also known as component B, was the northeastern and leading component of the pair of nuclei initially seen at discovery. It was 23% as bright as component A and it was separated 3.4 arcseconds apart (projected distance of 3,100 km or 1,900 mi) when it was observed by the Gran Telescopio Canarias on 11 and 12 October 2013.

Observations by Hubble on 29 October 2013 showed that component B was initially a single object possessing its own dusty coma and tail. On 15 November 2013, component B began to split into two fragments, B1 and B2, that eventually moved far enough apart to be resolved by Hubble on 13 December 2013. The fainter fragment, B2, separated from B1 at a relative speed of 0.32 m/s and faded steadily with constant absolute magnitude. On the other hand, the brighter fragment B1 had its absolute magnitude brighten by more than a magnitude between 13 December 2013 and 14 January 2014, before ejecting another small fragment, B3, that was seen by Hubble on 13 February 2014. This sudden brightening of B1 may be associated with the beginning of B3's separation, based on similar behavior seen in comets before fragmenting.

Component C

A faint fragment, named component C, was first seen southwest of component A in Keck Telescope observations on 1 and 2 October 2013. It was detected again in Gran Telescopio Canarias observations on 11 and 12 October 2013 and 6.5-m Magellan Telescope observations on 28 and 29 October 2013. Component C was 5–10% as bright as component A and it was separated 2.4 arcseconds apart (projected distance of 2,500 km or 1,600 mi) at the time of the Gran Telescopio Canarias observations.

Observations by Hubble on 29 October 2013 revealed that component C had already split into two fragments, C1 and C2. With an area-projected diameter of 120 m (390 ft), fragment C1 was the smallest of the two fragments and it had promptly faded to invisibility by the time Hubble reobserved P/2013 R3 on 15 November 2013. The surviving fragment, C2, faded at a slower rate and did not experience any further fragmentation over the course of Hubble observations through 2013–2014. Based on its last observed brightness on 13 February 2014, fragment C2's area-projected diameter was around 160 m (520 ft).

Component D

An additional faint fragment, named component D, was discovered trailing far behind the main components' tail in Keck observations from 1 and 2 October 2013. Component D was detected again in Gran Telescopio Canarias observations on 11 and 12 October 2013. The fragment was 0.5% as bright as component A and it was widely separated 36 arcseconds apart (projected distance of 32,700 km or 20,300 mi) at the time of the Gran Telescopio Canarias observations. It was possibly last seen in Magellan Telescope observations on 29 October 2013, although it may have become too faint for confident identification.

For an assumed geometric albedo of 0.05 with minimal dust contamination, component D is less than 200 m (660 ft) in diameter. The separation time of component D is uncertain due to the lack of relative motion to other components during its short observational coverage. Keck observations from 1 and 2 October 2013 place an upper limit separation speed of ≤6 m/s, corresponding to a separation date sometime earlier than 30 July 2013. Component D's latest possible separation dates overlap with the separation date range for P/2013 R3's dust cloud, suggesting that these two events may be related.

Aftermath

After P/2013 R3 left conjunction with the Sun, astronomers attempted reobserving the asteroid's remains with the Hubble, Keck, and Very Large Telescope in 2014–2015. Hubble observations from 29 September 2014 to 26 May 2015 probed P/2013 R3's expected location down to a limiting magnitude of 28 within a 162 arcsecond field of view, but did not find any signs of a dusty debris trail or fragments larger than 280 m (920 ft) in diameter. Keck telescope observations from 17 February 2015 to 8 December 2015 searched a wider field of view of 360 arcseconds around P/2013 R3's predicted location, but found no dust nor fragments larger than 800 m (2,600 ft) in diameter. Very Large Telescope observations from 18 January 2015 searched an even wider field of view of 7.2 arcminutes (432 arcseconds) and also found no dust nor fragments larger than 220 m (720 ft) in diameter. The large dust grains and fragments of P/2013 R3 should not have dispersed appreciably by solar radiation pressure around that time, so these non-detections of P/2013 R3 most likely indicate that astronomers missed the asteroid due to inaccurate predictions for its location.

See also

• (29075) 1950 DA – a kilometer-sized near-Earth asteroid stably rotating faster than the 2.2 hour critical spin period due to cohesive forces
• Active asteroid
  • (300163) 2006 VW139 – a binary active asteroid consisting of widely-separated components
  • 354P/LINEAR (P/2010 A2) – a main-belt asteroid that was impacted by another asteroid sometime before 2010
  • P/2016 J1 (PanSTARRS) – a pair of active asteroid fragments that split apart in early 2010

Notes

1. ^ Gran Telescopio Canarias observers Licandro et al. gave different provisional names for the fragments of P/2013 R3 prior to the publication of Jewitt et al. (2014). Component B was provisionally called component A, component C was provisionally called component B, and component D was provisionally called component C.
2. Jewitt et al. (2017) incorrectly wrote fragment A4's separation date as "2013 Nov 03".
3. Fragment B1 significantly brightened between 13 December 2013 and 14 January 2013 due to a fragmentation event that led to the formation of fragment B3. Prior to this, B1 had an apparent magnitude of 24.89±0.02 and an absolute magnitude of 20.63±0.02 on 13 December 2013, corresponding to an area-equivalent diameter of 460 m (1,510 ft).

References

1. ^ Green, Daniel W. E. (27 September 2013). "CBET 3658: Comet P/2013 R3 (Catalina-Panstarrs)". Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams. 3658. Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams: 1. Bibcode:2013CBET.3658....1H. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
2. ^ "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: P/2013 R3 (Catalina-PANSTARRS)" (2014-01-03 last obs.). Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
3. ^ Jewitt, David; Agarwal, Jessica; Li, Jing; Weaver, Harold; Mutchler, Max; Larson, Stephen (March 2014). "Disintegrating Asteroid P/2013 R3" (PDF). The Astronomical Journal. 784 (1): 5. arXiv:1403.1237. Bibcode:2014ApJ...784L...8J. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/784/1/L8. L8.
4. "P/2013 R3 (Catalina-PANSTARRS)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
5. ^ Jewitt, David; Agarwal, Jessica; Li, Jing; Weaver, Harold; Mutchler, Max; Larson, Stephen (May 2017). "Anatomy of an Asteroid Breakup: The Case of P/2013 R3". The Astronomical Journal. 153 (5): 17. arXiv:1703.09668. Bibcode:2017AJ....153..223J. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aa6a57. 223.
6. ^ Williams, Gareth V. (27 September 2013). "MPEC 2013-S53 : COMET P/2013 R3 (CATALINA-PANSTARRS)". Minor Planet Electronic Circulars. 2013-S53. Minor Planet Center. Bibcode:2013MPEC....S...53N. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
7. ^ Hsieh, Henry H.; Novaković, Bojan; Kim, Yoonyoung; Brasser, Ramon (February 2018). "Asteroid Family Associations of Active Asteroids". The Astronomical Journal. 155 (2): 22. arXiv:1801.01152. Bibcode:2018AJ....155...96H. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aaa5a2. 96.
8. ^ Jewitt, David; Hsieh, Henry; Agarwal, Jessica (2015). "The Active Asteroids". In Michel, Patrick; DeMeo, Francesca; Bottke, William F. (eds.). Asteroids IV. pp. 221–241. arXiv:1502.02361. Bibcode:2015aste.book..221J. doi:10.2458/azu_uapress_9780816532131-ch012. ISBN 978-0-816-53213-1. S2CID 45208650.
9. ^ Jewitt, David (2017). "The Active Asteroids". Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences. University of California, Los Angeles. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
10. Pravec, P.; Fatka, F.; Vokrouhlický, D.; Scheeres, D. J.; Kušnirák, P.; Hornoch, K. (April 2018). "Asteroid clusters similar to asteroid pairs" (PDF). Icarus. 304: 110–126. Bibcode:2018Icar..304..110P. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2017.08.008.
11. ^ Zhang, Yun; Richardson, Derek C.; Barnouin, Olivier S.; Michel, Patrick; Schwartz, Stephen R.; Ballouz, Ronald-Louis (April 2018). "Rotational Failure of Rubble-pile Bodies: Influences of Shear and Cohesive Strengths". The Astrophysical Journal. 857 (1): 5. Bibcode:2018ApJ...857...15Z. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aab5b2. hdl:10150/627640. L12.
12. ^ Hirabayashi, Masatoshi; Scheeres, Daniel J.; Sánchez, Diego Paul; Gabriel, Travis (July 2014). "Constraints on the Physical Properties of Main Belt Comet P/2013 R3 from its Breakup Event". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 789 (1): 5. arXiv:1406.0804. Bibcode:2014ApJ...789L..12H. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/789/1/L12. L12.
13. ^ Plait, Phil (4 April 2017). "In 2013, an asteroid exploded. Now we know why: It spun itself to death". SYFY Wire. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
14. ^ Jewitt, David; Hsieh, Henry (2022). "The Asteroid-Comet Continuum". In Meech, K.; Combi, M. (eds.). Comets III. University of Arizona Press. p. 34. arXiv:2203.01397. Bibcode:2022arXiv220301397J.
15. ^ Green, Daniel W. E. (27 October 2013). "CBET 3679: Comet P/2013 R3 (Catalina-Panstarrs)". Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams. 3679. Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams: 1. Bibcode:2013CBET.3679....1L. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
16. Licandro, Javier; Moreno, F.; Cabrera-Lavers, A.; Álvarez, C.; Pozuelos, F.; Sota, A. (17 October 2013). "The GTC observes, for the first time, a main belt comet (MBC) splitted into four fragments". iac.es. Astrofísica de Canarias. Archived from the original on 19 October 2013. Retrieved 2 December 2013.

External links

• Disintegrating Asteroid P/2013 R3, David Jewitt, University of California, Los Angeles Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, 2017
• Anatomy of an Asteroid Breakup, Susanna Kohler, AAS Nova, American Astronomical Society, 3 May 2017
• Hubble Witnesses an Asteroid Mysteriously Disintegrating, HubbleSite, NASA, 6 March 2014
• New Comet: P/2013 R3 (CATALINA-PANSTARRS), Ernesto Guido & Nick Howes, 1 October 2013
• Comet P/2013 R3 Catalina-Pan-STARRS splitted: an image (5 Nov. 2013), Gianluca Masi, The Virtual Telescope Project, 8 November 2013
• P/2013 R3 ( Catalina-PanSTARRS ), Seiichi Yoshida, updated 11 June 2016
• P/2013 R3 at the JPL Small-Body Database
  • Close approach · Discovery · Ephemeris · Orbit viewer · Orbit parameters · Physical parameters

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Lists of comets (more) Periodic comets Until 1985 (all) 1P/Halley 2P/Encke 3D/Biela 4P/Faye 5D/Brorsen 6P/d'Arrest 7P/Pons–Winnecke 8P/Tuttle 9P/Tempel 10P/Tempel 11P/Tempel–Swift–LINEAR 12P/Pons–Brooks 13P/Olbers 14P/Wolf 15P/Finlay 16P/Brooks 17P/Holmes 18D/Perrine–Mrkos 19P/Borrelly 20D/Westphal 21P/Giacobini–Zinner 22P/Kopff 23P/Brorsen–Metcalf 24P/Schaumasse 25D/Neujmin 26P/Grigg–Skjellerup 27P/Crommelin 28P/Neujmin 29P/Schwassmann–Wachmann 30P/Reinmuth 31P/Schwassmann–Wachmann 32P/Comas Solà 33P/Daniel 34D/Gale 35P/Herschel–Rigollet 36P/Whipple 37P/Forbes 38P/Stephan–Oterma 39P/Oterma 40P/Väisälä 41P/Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresák 42P/Neujmin 43P/Wolf–Harrington 44P/Reinmuth 45P/Honda–Mrkos–Pajdušáková 46P/Wirtanen 47P/Ashbrook–Jackson 48P/Johnson 49P/Arend–Rigaux 50P/Arend 51P/Harrington 52P/Harrington–Abell 53P/Van Biesbroeck 54P/de Vico–Swift–NEAT 55P/Tempel–Tuttle 56P/Slaughter–Burnham 57P/du Toit–Neujmin–Delporte 58P/Jackson–Neujmin 59P/Kearns–Kwee 60P/Tsuchinshan 61P/Shajn–Schaldach 62P/Tsuchinshan 63P/Wild 64P/Swift–Gehrels 65P/Gunn 66P/du Toit 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko 68P/Klemola 69P/Taylor 70P/Kojima 71P/Clark 72P/Denning–Fujikawa 73P/Schwassmann–Wachmann 74P/Smirnova–Chernykh 75D/Kohoutek 76P/West–Kohoutek–Ikemura 77P/Longmore 78P/Gehrels 79P/du Toit–Hartley 80P/Peters–Hartley 81P/Wild 82P/Gehrels 83D/Russell 84P/Giclas 85D/Boethin After 1985 (notable) 88P/Howell 92P/Sanguin 96P/Machholz 97P/Metcalf–Brewington 103P/Hartley 107P/Wilson–Harrington 108P/Ciffréo 109P/Swift–Tuttle 122P/de Vico 126P/IRAS 141P/Machholz 144P/Kushida 147P/Kushida–Muramatsu 153P/Ikeya–Zhang 156P/Russell–LINEAR 161P/Hartley–IRAS 162P/Siding Spring 168P/Hergenrother 169P/NEAT 177P/Barnard 178P/Hug–Bell 205P/Giacobini 209P/LINEAR 238P/Read 246P/NEAT 249P/LINEAR 252P/LINEAR 255P/Levy 273P/Pons–Gambart 289P/Blanpain 311P/PanSTARRS 322P/SOHO 323P/SOHO 332P/Ikeya–Murakami 333P/LINEAR 354P/LINEAR 362P 460P/PanSTARRS Comet-like asteroids 596 Scheila 2060 Chiron (95P) 4015 Wilson–Harrington (107P) 7968 Elst–Pizarro (133P) 165P/LINEAR 166P/NEAT 167P/CINEOS 60558 Echeclus (174P) 118401 LINEAR (176P) 238P/Read 259P/Garradd 311P/PanSTARRS 324P/La Sagra 331P/Gibbs 354P/LINEAR 358P/PANSTARRS P/2013 R3 (Catalina-PANSTARRS) (300163) 2006 VW139 Lost Recovered 9P/Tempel 11P/Tempel–Swift–LINEAR 15P/Finlay 17P/Holmes 27P/Crommelin 54P/de Vico–Swift–NEAT 55P/Tempel–Tuttle 57P/du Toit–Neujmin–Delporte 69P/Taylor 72P/Denning–Fujikawa 80P/Peters–Hartley 97P/Metcalf–Brewington 107P/Wilson–Harrington 113P/Spitaler 122P/de Vico 157P/Tritton 205P/Giacobini 206P/Barnard–Boattini 226P/Pigott–LINEAR–Kowalski 271P/van Houten–Lemmon 289P/Blanpain Destroyed 3D/Biela D/1993 F2 (Shoemaker–Levy 9) Not found D/1770 L1 (Lexell) 5D/Brorsen 18D/Perrine–Mrkos 20D/Westphal 25D/Neujmin 34D/Gale 75D/Kohoutek 83D/Russell 85D/Boethin Visited by spacecraft 21P/Giacobini–Zinner (1985) 1P/Halley (1986) 26P/Grigg–Skjellerup (1992) 19P/Borrelly (2001) 81P/Wild (2004) 9P/Tempel (2005, 2011) C/2006 P1 (2007) 103P/Hartley (2010) 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (2014) Near-Parabolic comets (notable) Until 1990 C/-43 K1 (Caesar's Comet) X/1106 C1 (Great Comet of 1106) C/1264 N1 (Great Comet of 1264) C/1402 D1 (Great Comet of 1402) C/1471 Y1 (Great Comet of 1472) C/1577 V1 (Great Comet of 1577) C/1652 Y1 C/1680 V1 (Great Comet of 1680, Kirsch's Comet, Newton's Comet)) C/1702 H1 (Comet of 1702) C/1729 P1 (Comet of 1729, Comet Sarabat) C/1743 X1 (Great Comet of 1744, Comet Klinkenberg-Chéseaux) C/1760 A1 (Great Comet of 1760) C/1769 P1 (Great Comet of 1769) C/1807 R1 (Great Comet of 1807) C/1811 F1 (Great Comet of 1811) C/1819 N1 (Great Comet of 1819) C/1823 Y1 (Great Comet of 1823) C/1843 D1 (Great March Comet of 1843) C/1847 T1 (Miss Mitchell's Comet) C/1858 L1 (Comet Donati) C/1861 G1 (Comet Thatcher) C/1861 J1 (Great Comet of 1861) C/1865 B1 (Great Southern Comet of 1865) X/1872 X1 (Pogson's Comet) C/1874 H1 (Comet Coggia) C/1881 K1 (Comet Tebbutt) C/1882 R1 (Great Comet of 1882) C/1887 B1 (Great Southern Comet of 1887) C/1901 G1 (Great Comet of 1901) C/1910 A1 (Great January Comet of 1910) C/1911 O1 (Brooks) C/1911 S3 (Beljawsky) C/1927 X1 (Skjellerup–Maristany) C/1931 P1 (Ryves) C/1941 B2 (de Kock-Paraskevopoulos) C/1947 X1 (Southern Comet) C/1948 V1 (Eclipse) C/1956 R1 (Arend–Roland) C/1957 P1 (Mrkos) C/1961 O1 (Wilson-Hubbard) [de] C/1961 R1 (Humason) C/1962 C1 (Seki-Lines) C/1963 A1 (Ikeya) C/1963 R1 (Pereyra) C/1964 N1 (Ikeya) C/1965 S1 (Ikeya-Seki) C/1969 T1 (Tago-Sato-Kosaka) [de] C/1969 Y1 (Bennett) C/1970 K1 (White–Ortiz–Bolelli) C/1973 E1 (Kohoutek) C/1975 V1 (West) C/1980 E1 (Bowell) C/1983 H1 (IRAS–Araki–Alcock) C/1989 W1 (Aarseth-Brewington) C/1989 X1 (Austin) C/1989 Y1 (Skorichenko–George) After 1990 C/1990 K1 (Levy) C/1992 J1 (Spacewatch–Rabinowitz) C/1993 Y1 (McNaught–Russell) C/1995 O1 (Hale–Bopp) C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake) C/1997 L1 (Zhu–Balam) C/1998 H1 (Stonehouse) C/1998 J1 (SOHO) C/1999 F1 (Catalina) C/1999 S4 (LINEAR) C/2000 WM1 (LINEAR) C/2001 A2 (LINEAR) C/2001 OG108 (LONEOS) C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) C/2002 V1 (NEAT) C/2004 F4 (Bradfield) C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) C/2006 A1 (Pojmański) C/2006 M4 (SWAN) C/2006 P1 (McNaught) C/2007 E2 (Lovejoy) C/2007 F1 (LONEOS) C/2007 N3 (Lulin) C/2007 Q3 (Siding Spring) C/2007 W1 (Boattini) C/2009 F6 (Yi–SWAN) C/2009 R1 (McNaught) C/2010 X1 (Elenin) C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) C/2012 E2 (SWAN) C/2012 F6 (Lemmon) C/2012 K1 (PANSTARRS) C/2012 S1 (ISON) C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy) C/2013 US10 (Catalina) C/2013 V5 (Oukaimeden) C/2014 E2 (Jacques) C/2014 Q1 (PanSTARRS) C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) C/2015 ER61 (PanSTARRS) C/2015 V2 (Johnson) C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) 1I/2017 U1 ʻOumuamua C/2018 Y1 (Iwamoto) 2I/Borisov C/2019 U6 (Lemmon) C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) C/2020 F8 (SWAN) C/2021 A1 (Leonard) C/2022 E3 (ZTF) C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) After 1910 (by name) Aarseth-Brewington Arend–Roland Austin Beljawsky Bennett Boattini Borisov Bowell Bradfield Brooks Catalina C/1999 F1 C/2013 US10 de Kock–Paraskevopoulos Eclipse Elenin Hale-Bopp Humason Hyakutake Ikeya C/1963 A1 C/1964 N1 Ikeya-Seki IRAS–Araki–Alcock ISON Iwamoto Jacques Johnson Kohoutek Lemmon C/2012 F6 C/2018 C2 C/2019 U6 Leonard Levy LINEAR C/1999 S4 C/2000 WM1 C/2001 A2 C/2002 T7 LONEOS C/2001 OG108 C/2007 F1 Lovejoy C/2007 E2 C/2011 W3 C/2013 R1 C/2014 Q2 Lulin Machholz McNaught C/2006 P1 C/2009 R1 McNaught–Russell Mrkos NEAT C/2001 Q4 C/2002 V1 NEOWISE Nishimura Oukaimeden ʻOumuamua Pan-STARRS C/2011 L4 C/2012 K1 311P/PanSTARRS C/2014 Q1 C/2015 ER61 C/2017 K2 Pereyra Pojmański Ryves Seki–Lines Siding Spring C/2007 Q3 C/2013 A1 Skjellerup–Maristany Skorichenko–George SOHO Southern Spacewatch–Rabinowitz Stonehouse SWAN C/2006 M4 C/2012 E2 C/2020 F8 Tago-Sato-Kosaka [de] Tsuchinshan–ATLAS West White–Ortiz–Bolelli Wilson–Hubbard [de] Yi–SWAN Zhu–Balam ZTF
Category

• Active asteroids
• Encke-type comets
• Destroyed comets
• Split comets
• Periodic comets
• Discoveries by the Catalina Sky Survey
• Discoveries by Pan-STARRS
• Comets in 2013
• Astronomical objects discovered in 2013