166P/NEAT 2001 T4

Infobox Comet
name=166P/NEAT


discoverer=NEAT
discovery_date=October 15, 2001
designations=2001 T4
epoch=March 6, 2006
semimajor=13.83 AU
perihelion=8.559 AU
aphelion=19.1 AU
eccentricity=0.3811
period=51.43 a
inclination= 15.3813°
last_p=May 15, 2002
next_p=2053

166P/NEAT 2001 T4, also known as NEAT 8, is a periodic comet and centaur in the outer solar system. It was discovered by the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) project in 2001 and initially classified a comet with provisional designation C/NEAT 2001 T4, as it was apparent from the discovery observations that the body exhibited a cometary coma. It is one of only three known bodies with centaur-like orbits that display a coma, along with 60558 Echeclus and 2060 Chiron. It is also one of the reddest centaurs.cite journal
last=Bauer |first=James M.
coauthors=Fernández, Yanga R., & Meech, Karen J.
title=An Optical Survey of the Active Centaur C/NEAT (2001 T4)
journal=Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
volume=115 |issue=810 |pages=981–989 |year=2003
url=http://ads.ari.uni-heidelberg.de/abs/2003PASP..115..981B
accessdate=2006-06-12 ]

166P has a perihelion distance of 8.56 AU.cite web
date=2008-03-02 last obs
title=JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 166P/NEAT (2001 T4)
url=http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2001T4
accessdate=2008-09-14]

References

External links

* [http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=166P;orb=1;view=Far Orbital simulation] from JPL (Java) / [http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi?find_body=1&body_group=sb&sstr=166P Ephemeris]
* [http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/0166P/2001T4.html 166P on Seiichi Yoshida's comet list]