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Discoveries > Comets XII

COMETS: always more? 


Credit : MPC
The solar system of Jupiter to Neptune in June 7, 2005: blue squares are comets (solid squares for periodic comets and empty square for the others).

The figure above shows a concentration of comets where today's telescopes can observe. In clicking here, an animation of this image extended to beyond Pluto figure.

The number of known comets increases from year to year: large telescopes and automatic telescopes for the detection of asteroids (LINEAR, SpaceWatch, NEAT ...) detect comets increasingly tenuous. Moreover, the SOHO Space Telescope detects a large number of comets when approaching the Sun. Some fall and disappear into the Sun ...

Click here for statistical discoveries of comets