C/2019 J2 (Palomar)

{{short description|Non-periodic comet}}

{{For|other comets discovered by the Palomar Observatory|Comet Palomar}}

{{Infobox comet

| name = C/2019 J2 (Palomar)

| image = C2019 J2 2019-07-02 image ZTF-sso-876-zr-fov-4.0arcmin.png

| caption = The remnants of Comet Palomar imaged from the Zwicky Transient Facility on 2 July 2019

| discovery_ref = {{r|MPEC_2019-J123}}

| discovery_site = Palomar Observatory

| discovery_date = 27 April 2019

| designations = CK19J020

| orbit_ref = {{r|jpl}}

| epoch = 10 June 2019 (JD 2458644.5)

| observation_arc = 96 days

| obs = 312

| perihelion = 1.727 AU

| aphelion = ~1,480 AU

| semimajor = ~742 AU

| period = ~20,200 years

| eccentricity = 0.99767

| inclination = 105.14°

| asc_node = 25.468°

| arg_peri = 98.696°

| mean = 359.99°

| tjup = –0.418

| Earth_moid = 1.327 AU

| Jupiter_moid = 0.511 AU

| physical_ref = {{r|cobs_2019j2|Jewitt_2019a}}

| mean_diameter = ~{{cvt|0.4|km|mi}}

| M1 = 9.4

| M2 = 17.4

| magnitude = 14.6
{{small|(2019 apparition)}}

| last_p = 19 July 2019

| next_p =

}}

C/2019 J2 (Palomar) was a non-periodic comet that was discovered from the Palomar Observatory in April 2019. The object was reported by Quanzhi Ye as a comet on 9 May 2019 after detecting a fan-shaped tail about 10–15 arcseconds in length.{{r|MPEC_2019-J123}}

Disintegration

On 24 May 2019, the comet began to disintegrate at a distance of {{convert|1.9|AU|e6km|abbr=unit}} from the Sun, after experiencing a strong outburst nearly 56 days before reaching perihelion.{{r|Jewitt_2019a}} Further observations by the Zwicky Transient Facility between 6 and 9 July 2019 have shown that the comet lost its central condensation, indicating that its nucleus were completely destroyed.{{r|Ye_2019}} It is likely believed that strong outgassing have led to rotational disruption of its roughly {{cvt|0.4|km|mi}} nucleus, causing it to fully disintegrate a month after its initial outburst in May.{{r|Jewitt_2019a}} A similar event also occurred to 2I/Borisov a few months later.{{r|Jewitt_2019b}}

References

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite web

| title= Observation list for C/2019 J2

| url= https://cobs.si/obs_list?id=1799

| website= COBS – Comet OBServation database

| access-date= 3 February 2025 }}

{{cite journal

| author1= D. C. Jewitt

| author2= J. Luu

| title= Disintegrating In-Bound Long-Period Comet C/2019 J2

| url= https://faculty.epss.ucla.edu/~jewitt/papers/2019/JL19.pdf

| journal= The Astrophysical Journal

| year= 2019

| volume= 883

| issue= 2

| pages= L28

| bibcode= 2019ApJ...883L..28J

| arxiv= 1909.01964

| s2cid= 202538864

| issn= 2041-8205

| doi= 10.3847/2041-8213/ab4135

| doi-access= free }}

{{cite journal

| author1= D. C. Jewitt

| author2= J. Luu

| title= Initial Characterization of Interstellar Comet 2I/2019 Q4 (Borisov)

| url= https://faculty.epss.ucla.edu/~jewitt/papers/2019/JL19.pdf

| journal= The Astrophysical Journal

| year= 2019

| volume= 886

| issue= 2

| pages= L29

| bibcode= 2019ApJ...886L..29J

| arxiv= 1910.02547

| s2cid= 203837079

| doi= 10.3847/2041-8213/ab530b

| doi-access= free }}

{{cite web

| title= C/2019 J2 (Palomar) – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup

| url= https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=2019J2

| website= ssd.jpl.nasa.gov

| publisher= Jet Propulsion Laboratory

| access-date= 4 January 2024 }}

{{cite web

| author1= G. V. Williams

| title= MPEC 2019-J123: Comet C/2019 J2 (Palomar)

| url= https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K19/K19JC3.html

| website= www.minorplanetcenter.net

| publisher= Minor Planet Center

| date= 13 May 2019

| access-date= 2 February 2025

| bibcode= 2019MPEC....J..123Y }}

{{cite journal

| author1= Q. Ye

| author2= M. S. P. Kelley

| author3= D. Bodewits

| author4= J. F. Soulier

| author5= K. Sarneczky

| author6= F. Kugel

| display-authors= 3

| title= Disintegration of Comet C/2019 J2 (Palomar)

| url= https://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=12931

| journal= The Astronomer's Telegram

| volume= 12931

| bibcode= 2019ATel12931....1Y }}

}}