Chinese astronomers have made new findings regarding their research on the activity of the first two comets discovered by the country, according to the Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The comets, coded 62P/Tsuchinshan 1 and 60P/Tsuchinshan 2, were spotted by the Observatory in January 1965, and were confirmed as new short-lived comets after being reported to the Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center international.
A team of PMO researchers observed 60P/Tsuchinshan 2 from November 2018 to March 2019 using a high-precision telescope, and discovered a spiral structure in its inner coma, according to a study paper published in the scientific journal The Astrophysical Journal.
As a Jupiter-family comet, it was highly active compared to other such comets at similar heliocentric distances, and peaked in activity about 10 days after perihelion, the paper said.
The team obtained the main activity parameters of the two comets by collecting 850 observations for 60P/Tsuchinshan 2, and 471 observations for 62P/Tsuchinshan 1, over a period of more than 20 years. According to their other paper published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the activity of both comets increased as their perihelical distances decreased due to Jupiter’s gravity disturbances.