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COMET C/2003 WT42 (LINEAR)

was first identified as an unusual asteroid, of 18th magnitude, discovered by LINEAR on 2003 November 19.26. The initial elements gave a 13,000 year orbit, with perihelion at 5.23 AU and an eccentricity of 0.991, with perihelion in April 2006. [MPEC 2003-W48, 2003 November 24, 28-day orbit]

Observations in mid January 2004 demonstrated the presence of a coma, confirming the object as a comet. The latest orbit is hyperbolic, but perihelion remains a distant one at 5.19 AU in mid April 2006.

The Central Bureau has received word that a weak coma has been imaged for 2003 WT_42, an object originally reported as asteroidal by LINEAR (cf. MPEC 2003-W48, MPS 92017), by R. P. Binzel (at the Kitt Peak 4-m telescope) and by J. Licandro, M. Serra-Ricart, J. de Leon Cruz, and N. Pinilla-Alonso (at the 3.56-m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo + Near Infrared Camera- Spectrograph and the 2.5-m Nordic Optical Telescope + Andalucia Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera). Binzel reports that, in 1".5 seeing on 2003 Dec. 29.1-29.2 UT with the TV guider, 2003 WT_42 appeared distinctly more diffuse than stars of similar brightness, with a coma diameter of about 2"; broadband (500-900 nm) images showed larger north-south FWHM profiles when compared to stars of similar brightness. Licandro et al. report that a coma diameter of about 6"-10" (total mag R = 17.4 +/- 0.1; R-J = 0.8 +/- 0.15, which is close to the solar color) was clearly seen on simultaneous infrared and visible (broadband R and J_s) images of 2003 WT_42 obtained on 2004 Jan. 14.9. [IAUC 8270, 2004 January 16]

Brian Marsden notes on MPEC 2004-E05 [2004 March 1] that the "original" and "future" barycentric values of 1/a are +0.000207 and +0.000362 (+/- 0.000120) AU^-1, respectively, suggesting that this could be a "new" comet from the Oort cloud.

Kronk’s website comet C/2003 WT42 (LINEAR)

NEAT)

Af(rho) data - according CARA approach (with R-filter) of comet C/2003 WT42 (LINEAR)