133P/Elst-Pizarro

Encyclopedia : 1 : 13 : 133 : 133P/Elst-Pizarro

Comet Elst-Pizarro is a remarkable body in that it displays characteristics of both asteroids and comets [link], and is the prototype of main-belt comets. Its orbit keeps it within the asteroid main belt, while it displays a dust tail like a comet.

As a comet it is formally designated 133P/Elst-Pizarro.
As an asteroid it is designated 7968 Elst-Pizarro.

Elst-Pizarro was reported in 1979 as minor planet 1979 OW₇, with its image on a photographic plate being completely stellar in appearance. The orbit remains entirely within the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, with eccentricity 0.165, typical of a minor planet in the asteroid belt. However, the images taken by Eric W. Elst and Guido Pizarro in 1996, when it was near perihelion, clearly show a cometary tail. Since this is not normal behaviour for asteroids, Elst-Pizarro must have a widely different, probably icy, composition.

At present, there are only four other objects that are cross-listed as both comets and asteroids: 2060 Chiron (95P/Chiron), Comet 107P/Wilson-Harrington (4015 Wilson-Harrington), 60558 Echeclus (174P/Echeclus), and 118401 LINEAR (176P/LINEAR (LINEAR 52)).

… | Previous minor planet | | Next minor planet | …

… | Previous periodic comet | | Next periodic comet | …

The minor planets
Vulcanoids | Near-Earth asteroids | Main belt | Jupiter Trojans | Centaurs | Damocloids | Comets | Trans-Neptunians (Kuiper belt · Scattered disc · Oort cloud)
For other objects and regions, see: , , asteroid moons and the Solar system
For a complete listing, see: List of asteroids. See also Pronunciation of asteroid names and Meanings of asteroid names.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.