96P/Machholz

96P/Machholz is a short-period comet in July 2012 went through last perihelion.

A special feature of the comet is that it contains only 1.5 percent of the usual amount of carbon -nitrogen compound cyanogen. This is seen as evidence that it originated either in another solar system or its very close orbit sun is the cause of this composition.

Discovery

On May 12, 1986 Don Edward Mach wood discovered the comet with binoculars. The comet had when discovered an apparent magnitude of about 11mag.

Orbit

The comet is running on an elongated elliptical orbit at 5.24 years of the sun. The sun closest point of its orbit is about half as far from the Sun as the innermost planet, Mercury. The sonnenfernste point lies at about 5.9 AE just outside the orbit of the planet Jupiter. The orbit is inclined about 60 ° to the ecliptic.

Visibility

The comet passed perihelion on 4 April 2007. Here he had an apparent magnitude of about 2mag, however, could be observed due to its proximity to the Sun with SOHO. It was not until mid-April 2007, about 7mag bright comet was discovered in the morning sky. In 2012, he again approached the sun. Mach wood mid July 2012 had reached a brightness of 2mag again and could Between 12 bis July 17, 2012, in turn, are only observed with SOHO.