Astronomer Here Knocks Kohoutek's Comet Counting

A Harvard astronomer said yesterday that a comet sighted earlier this year by Czech astronomer Lubos Kohoutek is in fact two comets.

This is not the comet, also discovered by Kohoutek and named after him, that disappointed expectant viewers last year, but a pair of smaller comets.

Brian G. Marsden, lecturer on Astronomy and director of the International Astronomical Union, said he realized Kohoutek had discovered two comets when a Japanese observer saw Kohoutek's comet moving in a different direction from that plotted by Kohoutek.

Kohoutek though he had seen one comet twice, but actually had seen two different comets, Marsden said.

The comets both have nuclei of less than one kilometer, and do not have tails. They will both return toward earth in about six years.

The two comets are named West-Kohoutek-Ikemura 1975B and Kohoutek 1975C.