126P/IRAS

126P/IRAS is a Jupiter-family comet with an orbital period of 13.4 years. It was discovered in images taken by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite on 28 July 1983 by J. Davies. The discovery was confirmed with images taken with the 1.2-m Schmidt telescope at Palomar Observatory.

Observational history

Upon discovery the comet had an apparent magnitude of 15 and appeared stellar in appearance. The comet brightened and in mid September 1983 reached an apparent magnitude of 11 while a tail 3.5 arcminutes long was observed. Brian G. Marsden computed its orbit and found it is a short period comet with an orbital period of 13.32 years. The comet was observed again during its next apparition in 1996, when it brightened up to magnitude of about 11 in September 1996 and faded to about 12 in October. The comet was observed during its 2010 and 2023 apparitions.
During the 1996 apparition, the comet was observed by the Infrared Space Observatory when it was near perihelion. At the time, the comet had a 15 arcminute long tail in mid-infrared.

Physical characteristics

The surface was covered with dust grains smaller than 5 microns, a grain size similar to Halley's Comet. The dust mass loss rate was between 150–600 kg/s, while the comet shed 3.3 times more dust mass than gas mass. The albedo of the dust grain in the tail was estimated to be. The nucleus is estimated to have a radius of based on infrared observations.

Possible meteor shower

It has been proposed that meteoroids expelled from the comet about 13,000 years ago could reach Earth, producing a diffuse meteor shower.