| 479P/Elenin | |
| Discoverer: | Leonid Elenin[1] 0.45-m reflector (H15)[2] [3] |
| Discovery Date: | 7 July 2011 |
| Designations: | P/ (Elenin), |
| Epoch: | 15 June 2020[4] (JD 2459015.5) |
| Semimajor: | 5.61 AU (a) |
| Perihelion: | 1.24 AU (q) |
| Aphelion: | 9.98 AU (Q) |
| Eccentricity: | 0.779 |
| Period: | 13.28 yr |
| Inclination: | 15.40° |
| Asc Node: | 295.81° |
| Arg Peri: | 263.64° |
| Tjup: | 2.183 |
| Earth Moid: | 0.38 AU |
| Last P: | 20 January 2011 |
| Next P: | 5 May 2024 |
| M1: | 15.2 |
479P/Elenin, with provisional designation P/ (Elenin), is a periodic comet with an orbital period estimated at 13.3 years.[4]
The comet was discovered on 7 July 2011[2] when the comet was 2.38 AU from the Sun and 1.4 AU from the Earth and had an apparent magnitude of 19.5. It had come to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) around 20 January 2011 at 1.2 AU from the Sun.[4] P/2011 NO1 was the second comet discovered by Leonid Elenin. The first comet discovered by Elenin was comet C/2010 X1. Both comets were discovered with the aid of the automatic detection program CoLiTec.[5] It came to opposition 178.6° from the Sun on 22 July 2011 in the constellation Sagittarius.
On 29 January 2013 the Minor Planet Center awarded Leonid Elenin a 2012 Edgar Wilson Award for the discovery of comets by amateurs.[6]
Maik Meyer proposed that asteroid, which was discovered by PanSTARRS on 18 November 2023, is the return of P/ (Elenin).[7] [8] The link was later confirmed by Shuichi Nakano and Daniel Green.[9] The 2024 apparition was the most favorable in decades, with the comet brightening to an apparent magnitude of 10 to 11, with the comet approaching 0.62 AU to Earth on 4 May 2024, one day before perihelion. The comet appeared gasy and diffuse.[10]
The radius of the nucleus is estimated to be less than one kilometre.[11]