332P/Ikeya–Murakami
332P/Ikeya–Murakami photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope in January 2016. | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Kaoru Ikeya Shigeki Murakami |
| Discovery date | 3 November 2010 |
| Designations | |
| P/2010 V1, P/2015 Y2 | |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch | 2016 Jan. 13 |
| Observation arc | 124 days (fragment A) |
| Perihelion | 1.573 AU (q) |
| Eccentricity | 0.4904 |
| Orbital period | 5.42 yr (1980 days) |
| Inclination | 9.387° |
| Last perihelion | 18 August 2021 (A) (unobserved) |
| Next perihelion | 19 January 2027? (A) 6 June 2027?? (F) |
| Earth MOID | 0.59 AU (A) |
| Jupiter MOID | 0.46 AU (A) 0.34 AU (F) |
| Physical characteristics | |
Mean radius | ≤ 2 km (original nucleus) ≤ 275 meters (A+C) ≤ 20 meters (F) |
| 0.04 (assumed) | |
| Comet total magnitude (M1) | 5.2 |
| Comet nuclear magnitude (M2) | 12.5 |
332P/Ikeya–Murakami (P/2010 V1) is a short-period comet with period of approximately 5.4 years first identified independently by the two Japanese amateur astronomers Kaoru Ikeya and Shigeki Murakami on November 3, 2010. As 332P/Ikeya–Murakami only approaches within 1.57 AU of the Sun, roughly Mars distance from the Sun, the fragmentation events may be a result of rapid rotation. The comet was last observed in October 2020 as during the 2021 perihelion passage the comet was only 7 degrees from the Sun. The comet will next come to perihelion in January 2027 when it will have a solar elongation of 100 degrees.