COBS News archive

New Comet P/2021 Q5 (ATLAS)
October 02, 2021

CBET 5029 & MPEC 2021-R98 , issued on 2021, September 06, announce the discovery of a new comet (magnitude ~17) on CCD images taken on August 29.6 UT with a 0.5-m f/2 Schmidt reflector at Haleakala, Hawaii, in the course of the "Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System" (ATLAS) search program. The new comet has been designated P/2021 Q5 (ATLAS).

New Comet C/2021 Q4 (Fuls)
September 30, 2021

CBET 5028 & MPEC 2021-Q102, issued on 2021, August 31 & September 02, announce the discovery of a new comet (magnitude ~20) on CCD images taken on August 26.2 UT with the Mt. Lemmon Survey (G96) 1.5-m reflector. The new comet has been designated C/2021 Q4 (Fuls).

New Comet C/2021 P4 (ATLAS)
August 31, 2021

With the MPEC 2021-Q42 issued on 21 August 2021, the discovery of a new Magn comet is announced. 19.4 identified by the ATLAS-HKO program (T05).

Interstellar comets like Borisov may not be all that rare
August 24, 2021

Astronomers calculate that the Oort Cloud may be home to more visiting objects than objects that belong to our solar system.

New Comet C/2021 O3 (PANSTARRS)
August 05, 2021

CBET xxxx & MPEC 2021-P05, issued on 2021, August 01, announce the discovery of a new comet (magnitude ~20) on CCD images taken on July 26.5 UT with the Pan-STARRS1 1.8-m Ritchey-Chretien reflector at Haleakala. The new comet has been designated C/2021 O3 (PANSTARRS).

New Comet C/2021 N3 (PANSTARRS)
July 27, 2021

CBET 5003 & MPEC 2021-O39, issued on 2021, July 22, announce the discovery of a new comet (magnitude ~20.5) on CCD images taken on July 13.5 UT with the Pan-STARRS1 1.8-m Ritchey-Chretien reflector at Haleakala (numerous pre-discovery observations going back an additional month were later identified). The new comet has been designated C/2021 N3 (PANSTARRS).

New Comet P/2021 N2 (Fuls)
July 24, 2021

CBET 5000 & MPEC 2021-N137, issued on 2021, July 15, announce the discovery of a new comet (magnitude ~18.3) on CCD images taken on July 09.4 UT with the Catalina Sky Survey's 0.68-m Schmidt reflector (pre-discovery Catalina observations from June 27 were identified later). The new comet has been designated  P/2021 N2 (Fuls).

New Comet C/2021 K2 (MASTER)
June 15, 2021

CBET 4975 & MPEC 2021-L89, issued on 2021, June 09, announce the discovery of a new comet (magnitude ~19.0) on CCD images taken on May 23.0 UT with the "Mobile Astronomical System of the Telescope-Robots" (MASTER) auto-detection system (double 0.40-m f/2.5 reflector) at the South African Astronomical Observatory. The object was reported by MASTER as a new NEO candidate and has been found to show cometary activity by CCD astrometrists elsewhere. The new comet has been designated C/2021 K2 (MASTER).

New Comet C/2021 J1 (Maury-Attard)
June 05, 2021

CBET 4972 & MPEC 2021-L11, issued on 2021, June 02, announce the discovery of a new comet (magnitude ~19.0) on CCD images taken by A. Maury and G. Attard on May 09.3 UT with the 0.28-m f/2.2 Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt astrograph at San Pedro de Atacama, Chile in the course of the  MAP (W94) survey.  The new comet has been designated C/2021 J1 (Maury-Attard). This is the first amateur comet discovery of 2021. It is also the first comet ever discovered using the synthetic tracking technique (using TYCHO software).

New Comet C/2021 K1 (ATLAS)
May 31, 2021

CBET 4968 & MPEC 2021-K89, issued on 2021, May 27, announce the discovery of a new comet (magnitude ~17.0) on CCD images taken on May 14.5 UT with the 0.5-m reflector + CCD in the course of the ATLAS-HKO (T05) survey.  The object was originally found by Peter Veres of Minor Planet Center (MPC) as unusually bright among the MPC's isolated tracklet file (ITF) and linked to the detections  from May 22 (F51) and May 14 (T08).  A review of the ATLAS images revealed the cometary nature of this object.

New Reference catalog keys
May 09, 2021

New reference catalog keys were assigned for GAIA DR catalog and APASS catalog.

New Comet C/2021 E3 (ZTF)
May 07, 2021

CBET xxxx & MPEC 2021-J71 , issued on 2021, May 06, announce the discovery of an apparently asteroidal object (magnitude ~19.5) on CCD images taken on March 09.5 UT with the 1.2-m Schmidt telescope at Palomar in the course of the "Zwicky Transient Facility" (ZTF) search program. This object has been found to show cometary appearance by CCD astrometrists elsewhere. The new comet has been designated C/2021 E3 (ZTF).

Exploring comet thermal history: Burnt-out comet covered with talcum powder
April 09, 2021
The world's first ground-based observations of the bare nucleus of a comet nearing the end of its active life revealed that the nucleus has a diameter of 800 meters and is covered with large grains of phyllosilicate; on Earth large grains of phyllosilicate are commonly available as talcum powder. This discovery provides clues to piece together the history of how this comet evolved into its current burnt-out state.

New Comet C/2019 U5 (PANSTARRS)
April 09, 2021
CBET 4953 & MPEC 2021-G80, issued on 2021, April 07, announce that an apparently asteroidal object (magnitude ~21.0) discovered on CCD images obtained with the F51 Pan-STARRS 1 survey's 1.8m Ritchey-Chretien on 2019, October 22.22 and designated A/2019 U5 (cf. MPEC 2019-V10) has been found to show cometary appearance by other CCD observers over the past half year. The new comet has been designated C/2019 U5 (PANSTARRS).

First interstellar comet may be the most pristine ever found
April 01, 2021
New observations indicate that the rogue comet 2I/Borisov, which is only the second and most recently detected interstellar visitor to our Solar System, is one of the most pristine ever observed. Astronomers suspect that the comet most likely never passed close to a star, making it an undisturbed relic of the cloud of gas and dust it formed from.

New Comet C/2020 F7 (Lemmon)
March 27, 2021
CBET 4949 & MPEC 2021-F110, issued on 2021, March 25, announce that an apparently asteroidal object (magnitude ~21.0) discovered on CCD images obtained with the Mt. Lemmon Survey's 1.5-m reflector on 2020 Mar. 22 and designated A/2020 F7 (cf. MPEC 2020-G78) has been found to show cometary appearance by numerous other CCD observers over the past half year. The new comet has been designated C/2020 F7 (Lemmon).

FLI Camera type keys
March 26, 2021
In order to unify the camera type abbreviation keys of all FLI camera models, we have added some additional camera type keys.

New Comet C/2021 D2 (ZTF)
March 23, 2021
CBET 4948 & MPEC 2021-F67, issued on 2021, March 22, announce the discovery of an apparently asteroidal object (magnitude ~19.5) on CCD images taken on Feb. 19.5 UT & Mar. 09-5 with the 1.2-m Schmidt telescope at Palomar in the course of the "Zwicky Transient Facility" (ZTF) search program (the object was reported twice by the ZTF survey team as two different objects) . This object has been found to show cometary appearance by CCD astrometrists elsewhere. The new comet has been designated C/2021 D2 (ZTF).

Comet Catalina suggests comets delivered carbon to rocky planets
March 07, 2021
Comet Catalina is helping explain more about our own origins as it becomes apparent that comets like Catalina could have been an essential source of carbon on planets like Earth and Mars during the early formation of the solar system.

New Comet C/2021 C4 (ATLAS)
March 02, 2021
CBET 4937 & MPEC 2021-D113, issued on 2021, February 26, announce the discovery of an apparently asteroidal object (magnitude ~19) on CCD images taken on Feb. 12.6 UT with a 0.5-m f/2 Schmidt reflector at Haleakala, Hawaii, in the course of the "Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System" (ATLAS) search program. This object has been found to show cometary appearance by CCD astrometrists elsewhere after the object was posted on the Minor Planet Center's PCCP webpage due to its orbit. The new comet has been designated C/2021 C4 (ATLAS).