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IAUC 9151: P/2010 L1; C/2010 E6

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IAUC number 

                                                  Circular No. 9151
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
CBAT Director:  D. W. E. Green, Room 209; Department of
 Earth and Planetary Sciences; Harvard University;
 20 Oxford St.; Cambridge, MA  02138; U.S.A.
CBAT@IAU.ORG; CBATIAU@EPS.HARVARD.EDU
URL http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html  ISSN 0081-0304


COMET P/2010 L1 (WISE)
     A. Mainzer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, reports the discovery
of a comet on 12- and 22-micron images taken by the WISE spacecraft
(discovery observation tabulated below), noting the object to have
a coma diameter of about 20", a tail > 100" in p.a. 180 deg, and a
brightness at 12 microns that is about ten times fainter than
P/2010 K2 (cf. IAUC 9150).  After posting on the 'NEOCP' webpage,
ground-based CCD astrometrists have also noted the object's
cometary appearance.  J. V. Scotti reports that CCD images taken in
growing twilight with the Spacewatch 1.8-m f/2.7 reflector on June
6.5 UT show the object to be of mag 21.6 and perhaps slightly
diffuse.  Subsequent CCD images taken on poor (3") seeing on June
8.4 with the Steward Observatory's Bok 2.3-m f/3 reflector by
Scotti, J. A. Larsen, R. S. McMillan, and G. Bechetti show the
object to be diffuse compared to neighboring stars.  R. Miles
writes that CCD images taken on June 7.60 with the 2.0-m f/10
"Faulkes Telescope North" at Haleakala show an asymmetric coma with
a total R-band magnitude of 20.2 (15"-diameter aperture) and a 10"
tail in p.a. 240 +/- 20 deg.

     2010 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Observer
     June  2.50126   22 58 39.88   - 7 03 14.4   WISE

The available astrometry, the following elliptical orbital elements,
and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2010-L46.

     T = 2010 Feb.  4.039 TT          Peri. = 316.248
     e = 0.46056                      Node  = 318.501   2000.0
     q = 2.13749 AU                   Incl. =  21.099
       a =  3.96242 AU     n = 0.124958     P =   7.9 years


COMET C/2010 E6 (STEREO)
     Further to IAUC 9117, a Kreutz sungrazing comet found on
STEREO HI-1A website images was subsequently seen in STEREO-A and
STEREO-B COR2 and in SOHO C3 and C2 images -- yielding astrometry
for Mar. 8-12.  K. Battams notes that C/2010 E6 showed the first
definite ion tail seen in a Kreutz sungrazer in SOHO or STEREO
spacecraft images.  Astrometric measurements were done by H.
Dennison and Battams, with astrometric reductions and orbital
calculations done by B. G. Marsden.

 Comet       2010 UT       R.A.(2000)Decl.   Inst.  F    MPEC
 C/2010 E6   Mar.  8.183    3 57.3  +11 48   HI-1   AW   2010-L19

                      (C) Copyright 2010 CBAT
2010 June 8                    (9151)            Daniel W. E. Green

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