P/2021 U3 (Attard–Maury)

For other comets discovered by Alain Maury, see Comet Maury (disambiguation).

P/2021 U3 (Attard–Maury) is a Jupiter-family comet discovered on 24 October 2021 by Georges Attard and Alain Maury.^[2][3] The comet had a magnitude of 19 at the time of its discovery. It is the second comet discovered using the synthetic tracking technique, using the Tycho software, as part of the MAP Observation Program.^[4]

P/2021 U3 (Attard-Maury)

Discovery
Discovered by	Georges Attard Alain Maury
Discovery date	24 October 2021
Orbital characteristics[1]
Epoch	24 November 2021 (JD 2459542.5)
Observation arc	99 days
Number of observations	275
Aphelion	6.497 AU
Perihelion	1.887 AU
Semi-major axis	4.192 AU
Eccentricity	0.54991
Orbital period	8.583 years
Inclination	69.693°
Longitude of ascending node	75.113°
Argument of periapsis	335.21°
Mean anomaly	3.461°
Last perihelion	24 October 2021
Next perihelion	1 June 2030
TJupiter	1.755
Earth MOID	0.947 AU
Jupiter MOID	0.487 AU
Comet total magnitude (M1)	16.8

Discovery

The comet was discovered on October 24, 2021 by Georges Attard, an amateur astronomer from Mougins, and Alain Maury, a former astronomer at the CERGA and the Palomar Observatory, now director of the astronomical resources center Space in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.^[5]

Method and Observation Program

Main article: MAP Observation Program

To detect near-Earth objects, Alain Maury, Georges Attard, and Daniel Parrott designed the MAP project. This project is based on a method, observation telescopes, processing software, and of course, diligent observers.^[6]

Characteristics

The orbital period is 8.58 years.^[1] The aphelion is 6.56 AU, close to the orbit of Jupiter.^[1]

See also

• C/2021 J1 (Maury–Attard)