Manx comet

{{short description|Class of rocky minor celestial body}}

A Manx comet is a class of rocky minor celestial bodies that have a long-period comet orbit. Unlike most bodies on a long-period comet orbit which typically sport long, bright tails, a Manx comet is tailless, more typical of an inner Solar System asteroid.{{cite news |url=https://earthsky.org/space/orbit-like-a-comet-rocky-like-an-asteroid-c2014-s3-panstarrs|title=Orbit like a comet, rocky like an asteroid |work=earthsky.org |date=3 May 2016}} The nickname comes from the Manx breed of tailless cat. Examples include C/2013 P2 (PANSTARRS), discovered on 4 August 2013,{{cite journal |title=C/2013 P2 Pan STARRS - The Manx Comet |first=Karen|last=Meech|journal = AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts #46|date=November 2014|volume=46 |pages = 200.02|bibcode = 2014DPS....4620002M}} which has an orbital period greater than 51 million years,{{cite news |url=https://legacy.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/oort_objects/|title=First Observations of the Surfaces of Objects from the Oort Cloud |work= Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa |date=10 November 2014}} and C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS), discovered on 22 September 2014, which is thought to originate from the Oort cloud and could help explain the formation of the Solar System.{{cite journal |title=Inner solar system material discovered in the Oort cloud |journal =Science Advances|first=Karen|last=Meech|date=29 April 2016|volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=e1600038 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.1600038 |pmid=27386512 |pmc=4928888 |bibcode=2016SciA....2E0038M }}{{cite news |url=https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/comet-with-stunted-tail-hints-at-how-solar-system-formed/|title=Comet with Stunted Tail Hints at How Solar System Formed |work=Astrobiology at NASA |date=23 May 2016|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170427172150/https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/comet-with-stunted-tail-hints-at-how-solar-system-formed/|archivedate=April 27, 2017|accessdate=23 January 2019}}