![\"animated](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/comet_2015May27.gif\")
\u201cWe were looking not for comets, but objects in the outer solar system called Kuiper Belt objects, which orbit the Sun far beyond the orbit of Neptune,\u201d said Cameron. \u201cThe former planet Pluto is the most well known Kuiper Belt object. In our images, these objects appear as little dots of light that, over time, seem to slowly jump from point to point. While searching our images one day, I was surprised to find a small streak of light with a tail, and like the Kuiper Belt objects it also jumped from point to point over time. The object wasn’t described in any database, so that was it: an unexpected, new comet discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mamajek ‘s group has been using DECam to discover both faint young failed stars (“brown dwarfs”) in nearby star clusters (a project led by PhD student Fred Moolekamp) and new outer solar system objects (led by Cameron).<\/p>\n
\u201cDiscovering a comet is not particularly rare nowadays,\u00a0but still exciting,<\/span>\u201d said Mamajek. \u201cAbout 80 comet of all types were discovered last year. This is one of about 500 Jupiter family comet,\u00a0which means that Jupiter strongly influences its orbit around the Sun.<\/span>\u201d<\/p>\n Though no comets have been found by Rochester astronomers in the past century, Rochester does have a history in comet hunting. \u201cThe prolific 19th-century comet hunter Lewis Swift discovered or co-discovered 13 comets, including the famous comet 109P\/Swift-Tuttle \u2013 the parent body of the Perseid meteor shower,\u201d said Mamajek.<\/p>\n Swift (1820-1913) was born in the village of Clarkson in Monroe County, New York, and in recognition of his astronomical discoveries received an honorary degree from the University of Rochester in 1879.<\/p>\n Mamajek explained that the new comet appears to be about 13 miles across, \u201clarger than most other Jupiter family comets.\u201d It orbits the Sun every 19.2 years, mostly between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. The comet reached its closest point to the Sun in August 2015 just inside the orbit of Jupiter. Given their icy natures, low inclinations, and orbits crossing the large outer planets, it is thought that Jupiter family comets originate from the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune. When their orbits bring them closer to the Sun, the resultant heating causes their volatile compounds, including water, to sublimate off and produce a distinctive tail.<\/p>\n