C/2019 J2 (Palomar)

For other comets discovered by the Palomar Observatory, see Comet Palomar.

C/2019 J2 (Palomar) was a non-periodic comet that was discovered from the Palomar Observatory in April 2019. The object was reported by Quanzhi Ye as a comet on 9 May 2019 after detecting a fan-shaped tail about 10–15 arcseconds in length.^[1]

C/2019 J2 (Palomar)

The remnants of Comet Palomar imaged from the Zwicky Transient Facility on 2 July 2019
Discovery[1]
Discovery site	Palomar Observatory
Discovery date	27 April 2019
Designations
Alternative designations	CK19J020
Orbital characteristics[2]
Epoch	10 June 2019 (JD 2458644.5)
Observation arc	96 days
Number of observations	312
Aphelion	~1,480 AU
Perihelion	1.727 AU
Semi-major axis	~742 AU
Eccentricity	0.99767
Orbital period	~20,200 years
Inclination	105.14°
Longitude of ascending node	25.468°
Argument of periapsis	98.696°
Mean anomaly	359.99°
Last perihelion	19 July 2019
TJupiter	–0.418
Earth MOID	1.327 AU
Jupiter MOID	0.511 AU
Physical characteristics[3][4]
Mean diameter	~0.4 km (0.25 mi)
Comet total magnitude (M1)	9.4
Comet nuclear magnitude (M2)	17.4
Apparent magnitude	14.6 (2019 apparition)

Disintegration

On 24 May 2019, the comet began to disintegrate at a distance of 1.9 AU (280 million km) from the Sun, after experiencing a strong outburst nearly 56 days before reaching perihelion.^[4] Further observations by the Zwicky Transient Facility between 6 and 9 July 2019 have shown that the comet lost its central condensation, indicating that its nucleus were completely destroyed.^[5] It is likely believed that strong outgassing have led to rotational disruption of its roughly 0.4 km (0.25 mi) nucleus, causing it to fully disintegrate a month after its initial outburst in May.^[4] A similar event also occurred to 2I/Borisov a few months later.^[6]