Home=Current Comets: 144P (2023/24)
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Comet 144P/Kushida (P=7.50a) will pass perihelion at a solar distance of 1.40 AU on Jan. 25, 2024, and will approach Earth to within 0.57 AU on Dec. 12, 2023. It should peak at 9-10 mag during December and January. The comet should be brighter than 16 mag between August 2023 and June 2024. During this period it will move through the constellations Aries, Taurus (perihelion), Gemini, Cancer and Leo. From Central European locations it will be visible in the morning sky at the beginning of the apparition, be visible all night in October/November and disappear above the western evening horizon in May 2024.
At the opening of February 2024 it seems that the comet shows an extremely high activity parameter. Based on 116 observations by 38 observers, the brightness parameters are
m0 = -5.5 mag / n = 45,indicating a maximum brightness of 10.0 mag around Jan. 20, 2024. In just two months it had brightened from 16.5 mag to 10.0 mag! If the comet continues to follow this development it will fade to 16.0 mag by the end of March 2024.
Total Brightness and Coma DiameterThe coma diameter increased steadily from 0.6' (20,000 km) at the beginning of the apparition, reaching the maximum value of 6' (200,000 km) at the turn of 2023/24. The coma was very diffuse throughout the apparition; the degree of condensation was constant at DC 2-3. A tail was not detected.
Andreas Kammerer