Comet Machholz
Comet Machholz, formally designated C/2004 Q2, is a long-period comet discovered by Donald Machholz on August 27, 2004. It reached naked eye brightness in January 2005. Unusual for such a relatively bright comet, its perihelion was farther from the Sun than the Earth's orbit.Period
Given the orbital eccentricity of this object, different epochs can generate quite different heliocentric unperturbed two-body best-fit solutions to the aphelion distance of this object. For objects at such high eccentricity, the Suns barycentric coordinates are more stable than heliocentric coordinates. Using JPL Horizons the barycentric orbital elements for epoch 2050 generate a semi-major axis of 537 AU and a period of approximately 12,400 years. This gives it a barycentric orbital period just a little larger than Sedna.
There are six other long-period comets named Machholz: C/1978 R3, C/1985 K1, C/1988 P1, C/1992 N1, C/1994 T1, and C/2010 F4. In addition, there are C/1992 F1, C/1994 N1 and C/2018 V1.
