C/2012 J1 (Catalina)

For other comets of the same name, see List of comets discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey.

C/2012 J1 (Catalina) is a distant non-periodic comet that only came within 3.16 AU (473 million km) from the Sun during its perihelion in December 2012. It is one of several comets discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey.

C/2012 J1 (Catalina)

Discovery[1]
Discovered by	Catalina Sky Survey Alex R. Gibbs
Discovery site	Steward Observatory
Discovery date	14 May 2012
Orbital characteristics[2][3]
Epoch	16 November 2012 (JD 2456247.5)
Observation arc	1.85 years
Earliest precovery date	13 May 2012
Number of observations	4,405[4]
Aphelion	~8,300 AU (inbound)
Perihelion	3.159 AU
Semi-major axis	~4,150 AU (inbound)
Eccentricity	0.99924 (inbound) 1.00102 (outbound)
Orbital period	~268,000 years (inbound)
Inclination	34.186°
Longitude of ascending node	235.22°
Argument of periapsis	147.27°
Last perihelion	7 December 2012
TJupiter	1.824
Earth MOID	2.219 AU
Jupiter MOID	1.382 AU
Physical characteristics[5]
Mean radius	3.3 km (2.1 mi)
Geometric albedo	0.04 (assumed)
Comet total magnitude (M1)	7.2
Comet nuclear magnitude (M2)	10.5[3]

Physical characteristics

Observations conducted between March 2013 and May 2014 recorded three outburst events that brightened the comet between 0.2 and 2.99 magnitudes temporarily.^[5] Assuming a geometric albedo of 0.04, its nucleus is estimated to have an effective radius of around 3.3 km (2.1 mi).^[5] Spectroscopic and polarimetric analysis of the comet had determined a gas production rate of around 3.7×10²³ molecules per second during perihelion.^[6]