172P/Yeung

172P/Yeung is a Jupiter-family comet with a 6.59-year orbit around the Sun. It is the first of two comets discovered by Hong Kong/Canadian astronomer, William Kwong Yu Yeung.

Observational history

It was initially thought as an apparently asteroid-like object from CCD images taken by Bill Yeung from the Apache Point Observatory on the night of 21 January 2002. Additional reports from the Minor Planet Center later identified that this comet is the same object as , with precovery images dating as early as 20 October 1993. This relatively long observation arc for a newly discovered comet allowed it to receive a permanent numerical designation from the MPC as 172P.

Infrared observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope between 2006 and 2007 revealed that the nucleus of 172P/Yeung is about in radius.