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| Keywords: Comet 52P Harrington-Abell 2MASS.jpg Atlas Image mosaic of comet 52P/Harrington-Abell which was serendipitously observed by 2MASS on 1998 Oct 8 UT and is among twenty comets included in the 2MASS Second Incremental Data Release Comets of course are within our Solar System and orbit the Sun and therefore do not move sidereally that is as the stars do Astronomers however have determined the ephemerides or orbital parameters for large numbers of known comets so their positions in the sky along their orbits can be accurately predicted Occasionally comets asteroids and even planets can accidentally wander into the Survey Comets reflect sunlight yet near-infrared photometry can provide useful compositional and structural information about these objects This comet was seen optically to experience a significant outburst in 1998 July IAUC 6975 and became unusually bright by August IAUC 6994 exceeding visual magnitude 11 by 1999 February IAUC 7113 Its coma diameter was 1-2´ and tail length of about 2´ in 1998 IAUC 6975 In 2001 December the comet was seen to have split into two IAUC 7769 following a brightening by more than two magnitudes between 2001 August and September IAUC 7773 http //www ipac caltech edu/2mass/gallery/images_ss html 2MASS Atlas Image Gallery Solar System Objects Two Micron All Sky Survey 2MASS a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation 2MASS Atlas image Comets 2MASS images | ||||
