02-19-2014 Astronomy anniversaries and new asteroids (now with comets, too!)

Asteroid discoveries:

None today

Comet discoveries:

P/2014 C1 (TOTAS)
Type: Encke-type comet
Perihelion: 1.585-1.802 AU
Aphelion: 2.653-6.459 AU
Eccentricity: 0.266-0.65
Period: 2.059-8.981Years
Last perihelion: December 20th, 2013
Next perihelion: June 30th, 2019


Today's astronomy anniversaries:

• Discoveries:
• None
• Events:
• 1960 (54 years ago)- China launches its first sounding rocket, the T-7.
• 2002 (12 years ago)- the Mars Odyssey begins mapping Mars in infrared.
• Births:
• 1473 (541 years ago)- Nicolaus Copernicus, a Polish astronomer who suggested that the Earth revolved around the Sun and not the other way around- is born in Toruń, Poland.
• 1932 (82 years ago)- Joseph P. Kerwin, an American astronaut on Skylab 2, is born in Oak Park, Illinois
• 1952 (62 years ago)- Rodolfo Neri Vela, a Mexican astronaut on STS-61-B, is born in Chilpancingo, Mexico.
• Deaths:
• 1553 (461 years ago)- Erasmus Reinhold, a German astronomer who made a large catalog of stars and followed the geocentric theory, dies in Saalfeld, Germany

             Coming up later today:
 The rings of the solar system: What formed them, their physical characteristics, and their eventual demise.