Sky and Telescope - March 2017 - 11

12h

κ

THE NONPROFIT Planetary Science Institute (PSI) has put out a call to amateur
and professional astronomers to help
document three comets making close
flybys of Earth over the next two years.
The comets - 41P/Tuttle-GiacobiniKresak, 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova,
and 46P/Wirtanen - will all pass our
planet at very close distances, ranging from 11.9 to 22.5 million km (7.4
million to 14 million miles). Comets
41P and 45P will reach their closest
approaches in early 2017; Comet Wirtanen will do so in late 2018.
To take advantage of this rare
opportunity, the 4*P Coma Morphology Campaign seeks detailed images
of each comet's coma from locations
spread across the globe. You can submit
photos taken in regular light showing
dust features or taken through narrowband filters that enhance gaseous
emissions. PSI suggests the best time to
obtain images will be from about midFebruary through mid-March 2017 for
Comet 45P and from the end of January
through July 2017 for Comet 41P.
The campaign will specify the best
times for Wirtanen in 2018.
Through the pro-am effort, astronomers hope to determine key characteristics about each of the three comets: the
nucleus's rotation rate, the onset and
evolution of outbursts or fragmentation,
and changes in coma and tail structure.

IN BRIEF

CREDIT

Clarendon (c): Meteorite
Find of a Lifetime
Thanks to an announcement in the Meteoritical Society's bulletin, the second-largest
chondrite ever found in the U.S. has been
donated to Texas Christian University. Frank
and DeeDee Hommel discovered the meteorite, called Clarendon (c), on their working
dude ranch near Clarendon, Texas. The stone
weighs 345 kg (760 lbs). It's now part of the
public Monning Meteorite Collection.
■ RUBEN GARCIA
Read the behind-the-scenes story of how the
author helped Clarendon (c) to its new home
at https://is.gd/clarendonc.

Pa
th
April 3
+60°

of
41
P

31

ε

tle
-G
α

M40

28

δ
M97

M109

M108

URSA
MAJOR

M106

χ
Another group, the Pro-Am Collaborative Astronomy (PACA) Project,
welcomes not only photos but also
visual observations. Interested observers should send requests to join the
Facebook groups PACA_4145P and
PACA_46_Wirtanen.
Even if you don't participate in a
campaign, visual observers can still join
the fun by following all three comets
from their faint beginnings to what
we hope will be bright and satisfying apparitions. Comet 45P may reach
magnitude +6 by mid-February, bounding from Aquila in the morning sky to

9h
M81

ia
co
bi
ni
-K
re

β
γ

+50°

/T
ut

10h

M82

υ

k
sa

S&T: LE AH TISCIONE

Worldwide Comet Campaign

11h

λ

Star magnitudes

13h

PRO-AM PROJECT

25

22

2
3
4
5
6

θ

March 19

p When Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak passes closest to Earth (0.14 astronomical unit) in late March, it will hurry across
the circumpolar constellations Ursa Major,
Ursa Minor, and Draco.

Coma Berenices in the evening in the
span of just two weeks. About the time
Comet 45P enters Leo at the end of
February, Comet 41P heats up, moving
north along the border between Leo and
Cancer in the evening sky. Come early
April, Comet 41P may become faintly
visible with the naked eye as it crosses
from the Big Dipper into Draco.
■ BOB KING

* Find detailed finder charts & how to join the PSI campaign at
https://is.gd/4pcometcampaign.

Big, Far-Out Kuiper Belt Object

New Clues on Beagle 2

Astronomers led by David Gerdes (University
of Michigan) have discovered a Kuiper Belt
object, designated 2014 UZ224, that's currently
91.6 a.u. from the Sun, or nearly three times
farther out than Pluto is. Only two other known
KBOs are more distant: Eris (96.2 a.u.) and
an object designated V774104 (103 a.u.). The
1,140-year-long orbit of 2014 UZ224 is quite
elongated. The new find's diameter could be
anywhere from 400 km across (if its surface is
highly reflective) to 1,200 km (if it's very dark);
the larger end of this range could qualify it
for dwarf planet status. Discovery details at
https://is.gd/2014_UZ224.
■ J. KELLY BEATTY

Researchers with De Montfort University and
the University of Leicester (both UK) provide
further insight into what happened to the UK's
failed Beagle 2 Mars lander in 2003. NASA's
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) found the
lander in 2015. Using an innovative technique
called reflection analysis, the team matched
the most likely lander configuration with unprocessed MRO images. The as-yet unpublished
results suggest the lander only unfolded three
of its four solar panels, the last one potentially
blocking the radio antenna's transmissions.
■ DAVID DICKINSON
Read more about the team's analysis at
https://is.gd/beagle2panels.


https://www.is.gd/4pcometcampaign https://www.is.gd/2014_UZ224 https://www.is.gd/clarendonc https://www.is.gd/beagle2panels

Sky and Telescope - March 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - March 2017

Contents
Sky and Telescope - March 2017 - Cover1
Sky and Telescope - March 2017 - Cover2
Sky and Telescope - March 2017 - 1
Sky and Telescope - March 2017 - Contents
Sky and Telescope - March 2017 - 3
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