Comet Machholz

C/2004 Q2 (Machholz)
	Comet Machholz in February 2005
Discovery
Discovered by	Donald Machholz
Discovery date	2004
Alternative; designations	Comet Machholz
Orbital characteristics A
Epoch	2453415.5 (February 14, 2005)
Aphelion	~1070 AU
Perihelion	1.205 AU
Semi-major axis	~537 AU
Eccentricity	0.9995
Orbital period	12,500 yr
Inclination	38.6°
Last perihelion	January 24, 2005
Next perihelion	unknown

Comet Machholz, formally designated C/2004 Q2, is a long-period comet discovered by Donald Machholz on August 27, 2004.

It reached naked eye brightness in January 2005. Unusual for such a relatively bright comet, its perihelion was farther from the Sun than the Earth's orbit.

Period

Given the orbital eccentricity of this object, different epochs can generate quite different heliocentric unperturbed two-body best-fit solutions to the aphelion distance (maximum distance) of this object. For objects at such high eccentricity, the Suns barycentric coordinates are more stable than heliocentric coordinates. Using JPL Horizons the barycentric orbital elements for epoch 2011-Jan-01 generate a semi-major axis of 537 AU and a period of approximately 12,500 years.^[1] This gives it a barycentric orbital period just a little larger than Sedna.

Image

Comet Machholz appears to pass near the Pleiades cluster in early 2005.

References

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