P/2021 U3 (Attard-Maury)

P/2021 U3 (Attard-Maury) is a comet of the Jupiter family discovered on 24 October 2021 by Georges Attard and Alain Maury.^[1][2] The comet had a magnitude of 19 at the time of its discovery. It is the second comet discovered using the synthetic tracking technique, using the Tycho software, as part of the MAP Observation Program.^[3]

The comet was discovered on October 24, 2021 by Georges Attard, an amateur astronomer from Mougins, and Alain Maury, a former astronomer at the CERGA and the Palomar Observatory, now director of the astronomical resources center Space in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.^[4]

To detect near-Earth objects, Alain Maury, Georges Attard, and Daniel Parrott designed the MAP project. This project is based on a method, observation telescopes, processing software, and of course, diligent observers.^[5]

The characteristics are detailed in the database of the Minor Planet Center (MPC) and in the database of JPL's Solar System Dynamics group at (Caltech/NASA)^[6][7]

The orbital period is 8 and a half years.^[7] Its trajectory can be observed in the small bodies database^[8]

The aphelion is 6.56 AU, close to the orbit of Jupiter.^[6][7]

• Periodic comet
• List of comets - en:List of periodic comets
• C/2021 J1 (Maury-Attard)

• Ernesto Guido (November 2, 2021). "New Comet P/2021 U3 (Attard-Maury)". Blog of Italian amateur astronomer Ernesto Guido. Guido-02112021..

• Official site of the Minor Planet Center (MPC)
  • "MPEC 2021-V21: COMET P/2021 U3 (Attard-Maury)". MPC. November 2, 2021. MPC-Circular.
  • "P/2021 U3 (Attard-Maury)". MPC. MPC-Database.
• Official site of the SSD group of the JPL (Caltech/NASA)
  • "P/2021 U3 (Attard-Maury)". SSD group at JPL. SSD.
• Alain Maury (April 28, 2021). "MAP history and description". Alain Maury's Blog. BlogMaury-MAP.