Comet Urata-Niijima is a periodic comet in the Solar System discovered by Japanese astronomers Tsuneo Niijima and Takeshi Urata on October 30, 1986, at Ojima. The first orbit was calculated by Brian G. Marsden on November 5 giving an orbital period of 6.42 years. On October 20, 1993, the comet was recovered by J. V. Scotti (Spacewatch, Kitt Peak Observatory, Arizona, United States), and on the next return on March 4, 2000, by Philippe. L. Lamy and Harold. A. Weaver using the Hubble Space Telescope. The nucleus of the comet has a radius of 0.90 ± 0.05 kilometers, assuming a geometric albedo of 0.04. At the perihelion passage in late September 2026 the solar elongation will be 83 degrees with a declination of +34. The comet should brighten to about magnitude 15.5 placing it near the limit of smart telescopes.
References
External links 112P/Urata–Niijima at the JPL Small-Body Database 112P at Kronk's Cometography 112P at Kazuo Kinoshita's Comets 112P at Seiichi Yoshida's Comet Catalog 112P/Urata-Niijima at Gideon van Buitenen's website