From the analysis of the 138 plots shown in Appendix B we assign nuclear magnitudes to 105 JF comets, out of which 9 belong to QC 1, 18 to QC 2, 37 to QC 3, and 41 to QC 4. We discarded 33 JF comets, for which we were not able to adopt or even approach a reasonable estimate of a nuclear magnitude, either because there are very few data (in many cases a single nuclear magnitude), or because a major coma contamination in the reported magnitudes is strongly suspected. This is usually the case for data coming from some observers who systematically report nuclear magnitudes too bright as compared with other reports. The discarded JF comets are shown in Table 3.
85P/Boethin | 140P/Bowell-Skiff | 108P/Ciffréo |
54P/de Vico-Swift | 79P/du Toit-Hartley | D/1978R1 (Haneda-Campos) |
D/1952B1 (Harrington-Wilson) | P/1987Q3 (Helin) | 127P/Holt-Olmstead |
59P/Kearns-Kwee | P/1997B1 (Kobayashi) | 104P/Kowal 2 |
P/1996R2 (Lagerkvist) | P/1997T3 (Lagerkvist-Carsenty) | 93P/Lovas 1 |
P/1986W1 (Lovas 2) | 115P/Maury | 18D/Perrine-Mrkos |
80P/Peters-Hartley | 83P/Russell 1 | 92P/Sanguin |
106P/Schuster | 102P/Shoemaker 1 | P/1986A1 (Shoemaker 3) |
121P/Shoemaker-Holt 2 | 129P/Shoemaker-Levy 3 | P/1991T1 (Shoemaker-Levy 5) |
D/1977C1 (Skiff-Kosai) | 69P/Taylor | D/1978C2 (Tritton) |
D/1960S1 (van Houten) | 63P/Wild 1 | 114P/Wiseman-Skiff |
There are in addition 27 JF comets discovered through 1997 with no plots, because they do not have any reported nuclear magnitudes. Some of these JF comets are very old and long ago ceased to be observed (a few of them have already disappeared like 3D/Biela), and some are very recent discoveries, observed only at one apparition with no chance of obtaining nuclear magnitudes. The JF comets of Marsden & Williams' (1997) catalogue that appear neither in Table 3 nor in the plots of Appendix B are shown in Table 4.
D/1884O1 (Barnard 1) | D/1892T1 (Barnard 3) | 3D/Biela |
D/1819W1 (Blanpain) | D/1886K1 (Brooks 1) | 5D/Brorsen |
D/1894F1 (Denning) | 72P/Denning-Fujikawa | 66P/Du Toit |
34D/Gale | P/1988V1 (Ge-Wang) | D/1896R2 (Giacobini) |
D/1766G1 (Helfenzrieder) | D/1984H1 (Kowal-Mrkos) | D/1770L1 (Lexell) |
P/1994P1-A (Machholz 2) | P/1992G3 (Mueller 4) | 25D/Neujmin 2 |
D/1783W1 (Pigott) | D/1984W1 (Shoemaker 2) | P/1990V1 (Shoemaker-Levy 1) |
P/1991V1 (Shoemaker-Levy 6) | D/1993F2 (Shoemaker-Levy 9) | D/1918W1 (Schorr) |
D/1895Q1 (Swift) | 11D/Tempel-Swift | 107P/Wilson-Harrington |
Table 5 contains the list of our 105 JF comets with assigned
nuclear
magnitudes. We present: 1) name of the comet, 2) perihelion distance, 3)
largest heliocentric distance at which a nuclear magnitude was observed,
4) number of perihelion passages
during which the comet was observed, 5) adopted absolute nuclear
magnitude, 6) quality class, and 7) effective nuclear radius assuming
a geometric albedo
.
Comet | q (AU) |
![]() |
N. pas. | ![]() |
QC | R (km) |
50P/Arend | 1.821 | 2.50 | 4 | 15.2 | 4 | 3.0 |
49P/Arend-Rigaux | 1.386 | 4.79 | 8 | 15.1 | 1 | 3.2 |
47P/Ashbrook-Jackson | 2.311 | 5.33 | 7 | 15.3 | 1 | 2.9 |
19P/Borrelly | 1.395 | 5.62 | 5 | 15.2 | 1 | 3.0 |
P/1992Q1 (Brewington) | 1.601 | 3.26 | 1 | 16.8 | 4 | 1.5 |
16P/Brooks 2 | 1.950 | 2.66 | 5 | 16.5 | 3 | 1.7 |
87P/Bus | 2.183 | 3.78 | 2 | 17.1 | 3 | 1.3 |
101P/Chernykh | 2.568 | 4.17 | 1 | 15.9 | 3 | 2.2 |
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko | 1.285 | 4.98 | 4 | 15.6 | 1 | 2.5 |
71P/Clark | 1.560 | 4.01 | 4 | 17.1 | 2 | 1.3 |
32P/Comas-Sola | 1.772 | 3.87 | 6 | 15.6 | 3 | 2.5 |
33P/Daniel | 1.382 | 2.87 | 3 | 17.9 | 4 | 0.9 |
6P/D'Arrest | 1.163 | 4.86 | 5 | 16.7 | 2 | 1.5 |
57P/Du-Toit-Neujmin-Delporte | 1.305 | 3.29 | 1 | 16.6 | 4 | 1.6 |
2P/Encke | 0.336 | 4.09 | 11 | 17.0 | 3 | 1.3 |
4P/Faye | 1.692 | 4.41 | 7 | 15.9 | 2 | 2.2 |
15P/Finlay | 0.998 | 3.65 | 3 | 17.9 | 4 | 0.9 |
37P/Forbes | 1.528 | 3.59 | 5 | 17.6 | 3 | 1.0 |
90P/Gehrels 1 | 2.935 | 3.35 | 2 | 15.4 | 4 | 2.8 |
78P/Gehrels 2 | 2.348 | 3.70 | 3 | 16.0 | 3 | 2.1 |
82P/Gehrels 3 | 3.424 | 4.08 | 3 | 16.1 | 2 | 2.0 |
P/1997C1 (Gehrels) | 3.565 | 5.45 | 1 | 15.8 | 3 | 2.3 |
21P/Giacobini-Zinner | 0.931 | 4.83 | 7 | 17.7 | 2 | 1.0 |
84P/Giclas | 1.627 | 2.18 | 2 | 16.9 | 4 | 1.4 |
26P/Grigg-Skjellerup | 0.732 | 4.93 | 4 | 17.1 | 1 | 1.3 |
65P/Gunn | 3.306 | 4.73 | 7 | 14.2 | 2 | 4.8 |
51P/Harrington | 1.694 | 2.35 | 3 | 16.9 | 4 | 1.4 |
52P/Harrington-Abell | 1.774 | 3.02 | 7 | 17.4 | 4 | 1.1 |
100P/Hartley 1 | 1.540 | 1.86 | 1 | 17.0 | 4 | 1.3 |
103P/Hartley 2 | 0.952 | 4.73 | 3 | 14.7 | 4 | 3.8 |
110P/Hartley 3 | 2.454 | 4.64 | 3 | 16.2 | 2 | 1.9 |
P/1993K2 (Helin-Lawrence) | 3.090 | 5.02 | 1 | 14.3 | 4 | 4.6 |
117P/Helin-Roman-Alu 1 | 3.707 | 5.21 | 2 | 14.9 | 2 | 3.5 |
132P/Helin-Roman-Alu 2 | 1.930 | 1.97 | 1 | 17.8 | 4 | 0.9 |
111P/Helin-Roman-Crockett | 3.470 | 4.54 | 2 | 16.7 | 3 | 1.5 |
17P/Holmes | 2.141 | 3.25 | 5 | 16.1 | 3 | 2.0 |
45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdu
![]() |
0.559 | 1.95 | 2 | 19.3 | 4 | 0.5 |
88P/Howell | 1.916 | 3.29 | 4 | 17.4 | 3 | 1.1 |
58P/Jackson-Neujmin | 1.463 | 2.06 | 3 | 18.7 | 4 | 0.6 |
P/1995A1 (Jedicke) | 4.083 | 5.53 | 1 | 15.2 | 3 | 3.0 |
P/1996A1 (Jedicke) | 4.055 | 6.52 | 1 | 14.1 | 2 | 5.0 |
48P/Johnson | 2.248 | 3.98 | 6 | 15.9 | 2 | 2.2 |
68P/Klemola | 1.763 | 3.87 | 3 | 15.9 | 3 | 2.2 |
75P/Kohoutek | 1.568 | 3.82 | 3 | 16.3 | 3 | 1.8 |
70P/Kojima | 1.631 | 3.77 | 3 | 17.3 | 3 | 1.2 |
22P/Kopff | 1.699 | 4.72 | 9 | 16.3 | 2 | 1.8 |
99P/Kowal 1 | 4.660 | 6.12 | 2 | 14.2 | 3 | 4.8 |
134P/Kowal-Vávrová | 2.609 | 3.70 | 1 | 16.9 | 3 | 1.4 |
P/1994A1 (Kushida) | 1.367 | 2.55 | 1 | 17.3 | 3 | 1.2 |
P/1993X1 (Kushida-Muramatsu) | 2.745 | 3.81 | 1 | 15.8 | 3 | 2.3 |
P/1997V1 (Larsen) | 3.293 | 3.40 | 1 | 14.8 | 4 | 3.6 |
77P/Longmore | 2.402 | 4.09 | 4 | 15.7 | 4 | 2.4 |
130P/McNaught-Hughes | 2.125 | 4.00 | 2 | 16.5 | 3 | 1.7 |
97P/Metcalf-Brewington | 1.631 | 3.67 | 1 | 17.0 | 4 | 1.3 |
P/1997G1 (Montani) | 4.217 | 4.80 | 1 | 15.6 | 4 | 2.5 |
124P/Mrkos | 1.411 | 3.58 | 2 | 16.6 | 2 | 1.6 |
120P/Mueller 1 | 2.747 | 3.15 | 2 | 18.1 | 3 | 0.8 |
Comet | q (AU) |
![]() |
N. pas. | ![]() |
QC | R (km) |
131P/Mueller 2 | 2.083 | 2.44 | 1 | 18.2 | 4 | 0.8 |
136P/Mueller 3 | 2.998 | 3.38 | 2 | 16.2 | 4 | 1.9 |
P/1993W1 (Mueller 5) | 4.250 | 4.95 | 1 | 16.0 | 4 | 2.1 |
28P/Neujmin 1 | 1.529 | 8.97 | 1 | 12.8 | 1 | 9.1 |
42P/Neujmin 3 | 2.042 | 2.52 | 3 | 18.7 | 4 | 0.6 |
39P/Oterma | 3.389 | 4.54 | 2 | 12.8 | 4 | 9.1 |
119P/Parker-Hartley | 3.026 | 4.18 | 2 | 15.6 | 4 | 2.5 |
7P/Pons-Winnecke | 0.772 | 3.55 | 5 | 16.8 | 3 | 1.5 |
30P/Reinmuth 1 | 1.860 | 3.39 | 6 | 17.1 | 3 | 1.3 |
44P/Reinmuth 2 | 1.867 | 4.09 | 6 | 16.8 | 4 | 1.5 |
89P/Russell 2 | 2.159 | 3.07 | 2 | 17.4 | 3 | 1.1 |
91P/Russell 3 | 2.510 | 3.73 | 3 | 17.1 | 4 | 1.3 |
94P/Russell 4 | 2.125 | 3.54 | 2 | 16.2 | 3 | 1.9 |
24P/Schaumasse | 1.226 | 2.75 | 4 | 18.0 | 4 | 0.8 |
29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 | 5.495 | 7.26 | 4 | 12.0 | 2 | 13.2 |
31P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 2 | 2.090 | 4.59 | 7 | 15.1 | 1 | 3.2 |
73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 | 1.011 | 3.03 | 2 | 17.7 | 4 | 1.0 |
61P/Shajn-Schaldach | 2.234 | 2.84 | 3 | 17.5 | 3 | 1.1 |
P/1994J3 (Shoemaker 4) | 2.944 | 3.14 | 1 | 15.0 | 4 | 3.3 |
128P/Shoemaker-Holt 1 | 3.053 | 3.77 | 2 | 16.1 | 4 | 2.0 |
137P/Shoemaker-Levy 2 | 1.844 | 4.84 | 2 | 15.3 | 2 | 2.9 |
118P/Shoemaker-Levy 4 | 2.019 | 3.96 | 1 | 16.5 | 3 | 1.7 |
138P/Shoemaker-Levy 7 | 1.630 | 1.75 | 2 | 18.0 | 4 | 0.8 |
135P/Shoemaker-Levy 8 | 2.711 | 4.14 | 2 | 16.8 | 3 | 1.5 |
105P/Singer-Brewster | 1.955 | 3.02 | 2 | 17.7 | 4 | 1.0 |
56P/Slaughter-Burnham | 2.544 | 3.66 | 3 | 16.7 | 3 | 1.5 |
74P/Smirnova-Chernykh | 3.546 | 4.78 | 4 | 13.7 | 4 | 6.0 |
125P/Spacewatch | 1.544 | 3.03 | 2 | 18.0 | 2 | 0.8 |
113P/Spitaler | 1.816 | 2.25 | 1 | 17.4 | 4 | 1.1 |
64P/Swift-Gehrels | 1.358 | 3.63 | 3 | 16.4 | 4 | 1.7 |
98P/Takamizawa | 1.595 | 3.78 | 2 | 15.7 | 4 | 2.4 |
9P/Tempel 1 | 1.562 | 4.69 | 6 | 15.8 | 1 | 2.3 |
10P/Tempel 2 | 1.344 | 4.74 | 9 | 15.3 | 2 | 2.9 |
62P/Tsuchinshan 1 | 1.486 | 2.37 | 2 | 18.1 | 4 | 0.8 |
60P/Tsuchinshan 2 | 1.769 | 2.31 | 4 | 18.2 | 3 | 0.8 |
41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák | 1.140 | 2.32 | 4 | 18.5 | 3 | 0.7 |
112P/Urata-Niijima | 1.449 | 2.87 | 2 | 18.4 | 4 | 0.7 |
40P/Väisälä 1 | 1.762 | 3.03 | 3 | 16.7 | 3 | 1.5 |
53P/Van Biesbroeck | 2.414 | 6.04 | 4 | 14.7 | 3 | 3.8 |
123P/West-Hartley | 2.129 | 2.75 | 1 | 15.9 | 4 | 2.2 |
76P/West-Kohoutek-Ikemura | 1.398 | 3.60 | 3 | 17.1 | 3 | 1.3 |
36P/Whipple | 2.484 | 4.12 | 6 | 15.8 | 2 | 2.3 |
81P/Wild 2 | 1.491 | 4.42 | 2 | 15.9 | 3 | 2.2 |
86P/Wild 3 | 2.288 | 3.43 | 3 | 17.8 | 3 | 0.9 |
116P/Wild 4 | 1.989 | 4.14 | 1 | 14.9 | 3 | 3.5 |
46P/Wirtanen | 1.635 | 4.62 | 4 | 18.4 | 1 | 0.7 |
14P/Wolf | 1.572 | 3.14 | 6 | 17.0 | 4 | 1.3 |
43P/Wolf-Harrington | 2.428 | 3.87 | 7 | 16.3 | 2 | 1.8 |
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