P/2003 T12 (SOHO) explained

P/2003 T12
Discoverer:	Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)
Discovery Date:	October 10, 2003
Semimajor:	2.568001678282154
Eccentricity:	0.7761661415724617

P/2003 T12 is a periodical comet that is observed in the sky every 10–15 years.^[1] On January 13, 2012, it was observed by the satellite STEREO-B, and the most documented phase of P/2003 T12 was observed on that date.

January 12, 2012 Event

During its apparition on January 12, 2012, it ventured into the highest phase angle ever observed for a comet, and the forward-scattering enhancement in brightness was marked, as large as ~8.5 mag. This has given insight into Henyey-Greenstein (HG) space-dust.^[2]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Small-Body Database Lookup . 2024-03-19 . ssd.jpl.nasa.gov.
2. Hui . M. -T. . 2013-12-01 . Observations of Comet P/2003 T12 = 2012 A3 (SOHO) at large phase angle in STEREO-B . Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society . 436 . 2 . 1564–1575 . 10.1093/mnras/stt1683 . free . 2013MNRAS.436.1564H . 0035-8711.