Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 (SW3) Bulletin #5

Michael L. Sitko, University of Cincinnati & Space Science Institute

SW3-B continues to be the “star of the show”, as observations made with the Kueyen 8.2-m unit of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile show it continuing to fragment – with at least 7 pieces now visible!

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has a press release that discusses these and other observations at: http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2006/pr-15-06.html. Also included is a summary of the history of SW3.

Magnitudes posted at the Minor Planet Center (http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/ps/icq/CometMags.html) have C running close to V~8.0 mag, B a bit fainter (but with considerable scatter), G close to V~12, and R at about V~14.

For more information, contact:

Mike Sitko

Dept. of Physics, University of Cincinnati sitko@physics.uc.edu Phone: 513.556.0642

& Space Science Institute, Boulder, CO sitko@spacescience.org