The GHOST telescope of the University Observatory of Oldenburg (IAU Code: G01) reached another milestone in the asteroid and comet observation field: During the night of 17th to the 18th of October 2023 the telescope was participating in the discovery of five new small objects in the solar system, which have all been published by now. Among these five objects there are three Near-Earth Asteroids (NEA), one of which is a previously known but lost asteroid (2014 XL8), which has not been observed anymore since 2014. The other two objects are both comets, which first seemed to be asteroids, too, but later analysis showed a visible coma in the images. In fact, one of the two comets is a Near-Earth Comet (NEC), which is quite rare, only making up around 0.4% of the more than 33.000 Near-Earth Objects (NEOs).
Here a summary to all discovered objects with their publication:
– 2023 UW (NEA): https://minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K23/K23U80.html
– 2014 XL8 (NEA): https://minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K23/K23U93.html
– 2023 UZ1 (NEA): https://minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K23/K23UB5.html
– C/2023 T2 (Comet): https://minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K23/K23UG2.html
– C/2023 S3 (NEC): https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K23/K23V01.html
With these new discoveries, the GHOST telescope has now discovered 11 Minor Planets since the operational start in 2022, 9 of those this year.
For further information on the GHOST telescope please have a look on this page: https://wp.uni-oldenburg.de/asf/robotische-teleskope/ghost/