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Possible discovery - Logged with BAA minor planets and comet sections

NickH

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NickH

NickH

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I am.... considering how lucky I am that nobody else announced or published their images before. Pic du MIDI picked it up a few days earlier, but didn't announce or appear to see any fragmentation. Their image from the 13th though shows it...

http://astrosurf.com/aude/comete/2007Q2z.JPG

It;s got major telescopes on it now as well...all very exciting

I have another 30 images from this morning to process, maybe more fragments in them..

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NickH

NickH

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Here's the image from this morning, still showing the fragment tracking the comet.. The mess is cosmic ray strikes. Still to process a composite shot with the starfield and the comet. It also passed directly over a small galaxy this morning, which was very photogenix to see *that's the brown upward streak

Still analysing but I think the fragment has also split up a bit...working on the raw data later today

post-14410-133877434664_thumb.jpg

post-14410-133877434669_thumb.jpg

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NickH

NickH

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And a nice shot of that small galaxy in the background, which the comet went right over.

Have more time to track this through now until we get some more orbital information, and hopefully get some bigger scopes to see if (as I think I have seen) the secondary fragment is several pieces

post-14410-133877434762_thumb.jpg

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NickH

NickH

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To everyone (and there have been hundreds of emails. threads and congratulations), thank you all so very very much

Astronomy is a wonderful hobby that serendipitous discoveries like this can be made by little guys like me. I hope it only encourages everyone else who images or views the skies, to not just look for looking sake or image for getting a pretty picture, but, as Ken Harrison (Merlin66) so wonderfully put to me today, to actually do something with what they see/find

Thank you all again

Latest news, The IAU have got back to me, wanting all sorts of info and data (PA/Separation/magnitude etc)...

SO so excited

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NickH

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IAU response....woohoo

Your message's ACK identification string is:

MPCReport file updated 2010.03.21 20:28:28

The formatting code returned the following statistics:

Number of header lines read = 15

Number of observation lines read = 17

------------------------------------------------------------------------

FEEDBACK ON COMPLIANCE OF YOUR HEADER'S TEL LINES WITH THE DOCUMENTATION

Your submission contained the following TEL line:

TEL 2-m reflector + CCD

This is what our processing software read or converted it to:

TEL 2-m reflector + CCD

Your submission contained the following TEL line:

TEL 2-m feflector + CCD

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NickH

NickH

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Ra and dec for the split component

Update: I have now found what I believe (have suspected for days) a third component split. This however will need Hubble or Keck to confirm, as even FT doesn't quite have the resolution for this. Estimated magnitude is about mag 20-21

post-14410-133877435151_thumb.jpg

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NickH

NickH

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Media release: Amateur astronomer discovers disintegrating comet with

help of Cardiff University telescope project

For immediate release: Dr Paul Roche

Monday 22nd March, 2010

Amateur astronomer discovers disintegrating comet with help of Cardiff

University telescope project

A leading amateur astronomer has made a major astronomical discovery

thanks to a sophisticated educational telescope project led by Cardiff

University astronomers.

Amateur astronomer, Nick Howes, has taken the first pictures showing a

split in the icy nucleus of Comet C2007 C3 using a remote-controlled

telescope through the Faulkes Telescope Project run by experts from

Cardiff Universitys School of Physics and Astronomy.

The project offers access to a pair of remotely controlled telescopes,

located on the Hawaiian island of Maui, and at Siding Spring in Australia

- via the Internet.

Using the Faulkes Telescope North in Maui, Nick imaged the faint comet in

glorious detail, producing a set of six images that showed a secondary

condensation trailing the main nucleus. This appears to be a

mountain-sized chunk of ice that has broken away from the giant dirty

snowball that forms the nucleus of a comet.

A second set of images obtained the following day (Friday 19th March)

clearly showed that the new fragment is still trailing the comet. It is

now hoped that astronomers will follow up Nicks discovery using

instruments such as Hubble Space Telescope.

Nick obtained the images whilst sat at his desk in work in Wiltshire,

operating the £5M Hawaiian telescope over the Internet.

Dr Paul Roche, from Cardiff Universitys School of Physics and

Astronomy, who is the Director of the Faulkes Telescope Project said:

We are delighted that Nick was able to capture dramatic images which

appear to show that the comets nucleus is disintegrating.

What this illustrates is what is achievable when amateur astronomers

can get their hands on such a powerful telescope. We hope to involve

schools in observing this comet over the next few weeks, so that we can

see what happens to this new fragment.

Its hoped that this discovery will help encourage others to use the

telescope for research and to help make new scientific discoveries. Last

year, another amateur astronomer, working with several UK schools and the

Faulkes Telescope Project, discovered the fastest-rotating asteroid in

the Solar system.

More than 200 UK schools have used the telescopes to help in science

lessons, often gathering data that is used by university researchers.

Dr Roche added: As well as amateur astronomers this project allows

researchers from the University to help schools access professional

equipment, and learn more about how modern science is really done.

We hope this discovery will help encourage others to use the Faulkes

Telescopes and lead to even more scientific discoveries.

The Faulkes Telescope Project was launched in March 2004 by the Dill

Faulkes Educational Trust, as a way of helping to inspire school students

to study science and maths.

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NickH

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Indeed...schookids in particular. Faulkes is primarily aimed at them, and I hope that kids who use it will think "wow we could find something too"

My analogy is Hanny Van Arkel...look at what she's done for Galaxy Zoo

There is a universe waiting to be discovered...fact!

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