English: Atlas Images, each covering 4.8´ × 4.8´ on the sky, of the comets C/1998 K1 (Mueller) and C/1998 M2 (LINEAR). Occasionally, 2MASS serendipitously encountered solar system bodies during its routine operations (see the discussion of the known asteroid, comet, planet, and satellite associations in the Second Incremental Data Release). As reported in IAU Circular No. 7500, M. Sykes, R. Cutri, J. Fowler, D. Tholen, & M. Skrutskie found "prediscovery" apparitions of these two comets, before their optical discoveries, in 2MASS Atlas Images acquired at the Northern Facility on Mount Hopkins and Southern Facility on Cerro Tololo, respectively. Comet C/1998 K1 was seen on 1998 April 4.316 UT at Ks=14.7, J-H=0.3, and H-Ks=0.2, and on May 10.223 at Ks=14.9, J-H=0.5, and H-Ks=0.0. Comet C/1998 M2 was seen on May 4.404 at Ks=14.3, J-H=0.5, and H-Ks=0.0. Both comets showed some coma, but with no obvious tail.
Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation.
Atlas Image [or Atlas Image mosaic] obtained as part of the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation.
Atlas Image [or Atlas Image mosaic] courtesy of 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF.
{{Information |Description= {{en|Atlas Images, each covering 4.8´ × 4.8´ on the sky, of the comets '''C/1998 K1 (Mueller)''' and '''C/1998 M2 (LINEAR)'''. Occasionally, 2MASS serendipitously encountered solar system bodies during its routine operations