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Comet C/2009 G1 (STEREO)

Discovery: [ IAUC 9036 ]

 Jiangao Ruan of China found the 10th magnitude comet on images taken by the SECCHI HI-1B instrument onboard one of the STEREO spacecraft. The comet was first visible on images taken on April 3 UT.  This is Mr. Ruan’s 19th comet discovery with all of the his comets being found in data from the SOHO and STEREO spacecraft. C/2009 G1 (STEREO) is different from the usual SOHO and STEREO comet. Instead of a small faint comet that only gets bright enough to see because it comes within a few solar radii of the Sun, Comet STEREO is a nice sized comet orbiting the Sun at nearly the same distance as the Earth. With perihelion on April 16 at 1.13 AU from the Sun, the comet is as close to the Sun as it will get. Luckily it will get closer to the Earth over the next 2 months, though it will get no closer than 1.06 AU from Earth. With a current estimated magnitude of ~10.5, the comet may brighten a bit as it gets closer. (See also MPEC 2009-G30)