93P/Lovas, also called Comet Lovas 1, is a Jupiter-family comet with an orbital period of 9.2 years. It was discovered in 1980 by Hungarian astronomer Miklós Lovas.[5]
Observational history
Miklos Lovas discovered the comet in photographic plates exposed on 5 December 1980. He estimated the comet had an apparent magnitude of 17. Although the discovery was announced on 8 December, on 15 December the International Astronomical Union Circular announced that no confirmation of the comet had been reported. Charles T. Kowal discovered the comet independetly on 14 December. The low number of available observations meant that a preliminary orbit was difficult to calculate and the orbit of the comet was reliably computed in February 1981.[5]
The comet was recovered on 7 July 1989 by Tsutomu Seki. He descripted it as diffuse with central concentration and with an apparent magnitude of 17.5. He also found it in plates exposed in 5 and 13 July. Few observations were recorded in August and September, including a visual observation by David H. Levy, who estimated an apparent magnitude of 16.3 on 24 August using an 154-cm reflector telescope. The comet passed perihelion on 10.5 October 1989. The comet brightened in November, with Alan Hale reporting magnitudes around 13 throughout the month. The comet approached Earth to a distance of 0.892 AU on 11 December 1989. The comet was then around 13 to 14 magnitude and its coma was 0.7 arcminutes across. It was last seen on 24 January 1990.[6]
During its next apparition it was recovered on 1998 June 17.44 at Whipple Observatory. The comet brightened to 13th magnitude in late 1989 to early 1990.[5]
Scientific results
The comet was observed by the Spitzer Space Telescope in infrared during the 2009 apparition. Based on these observations the effective radius of the nucleus was estimated to be 2.59 ± 0.26 kilometers.[4] During the same apparition the rotational period was estimated, with the most possible values being 18.2 and 13.2 hours.[7]
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