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255P/Levy, formerly P/2006 T1 and P/2011 Y1, is a Jupiter-family comet with an orbital period of 5.25 years. It last came to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on 14 January 2012. During the 2006 passage the comet achieved an apparent magnitude of ~9.5. Levy (PK06T010) was believed to have been recovered on 3 June 2011 at magnitude 19.8, but other observatories were unable to confirm a recovery. It was most likely a false positive because of large residuals. Levy was recovered on 17 December 2011 at magnitude 19.8, and given the second designation 2011 Y1. It was then numbered.

Wikidata facts

Parent body
Sun
Orbital period
1921.25995359411
Show 14 more facts
discoverer or inventor
David H. Levy
time of discovery or invention
2006-10-02
provisional designation
255P/2006 T1
absolute magnitude
11.5
orbital eccentricity
0.6720097835717624
semi-major axis of an orbit
3.024533986985813
periapsis
0.9920175569860369
apoapsis
5.057050416985589
orbital inclination
18.33304278569389
longitude of ascending node
279.7800482749129
argument of periapsis
179.5929552438922
mean anomaly
82.56119098281414
time of periapsis
2454015.884694566
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255P/Levy, formerly P/2006 T1 and P/2011 Y1, is a Jupiter-family comet with an orbital period of 5.25 years. It last came to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on 14 January 2012. During the 2006 passage the comet achieved an apparent magnitude of ~9.5. Levy (PK06T010) was believed to have been recovered on 3 June 2011 at magnitude 19.8, but other observatories were unable to confirm a recovery. It was most likely a false positive because of large residuals. Levy was recovered on 17 December 2011 at magnitude 19.8, and given the second designation 2011 Y1. It was then numbered.

It came to perihelion on 14 January 2012 at a distance of from the Sun. The comet passed the Earth on 2012-Jan-26 at a distance of . During the 2012 passage the comet was originally expected to reach an apparent magnitude of 7, but the comet had been in outburst in 2006 and was much dimmer than expected when it was recovered in 2011. MPC estimates after the 2011 recovery estimated that it would reach a magnitude of 17, and it had an elongation of 90°. However, CCD images showed it was diffuse and the comet's magnitude was estimated at 14.1 on 30 December 2011. The comet was not observed during the 2017 or 2022 perihelion passage. At opposition in August 2016 it would have been dimmer than magnitude 19.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “255P/Levy” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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