What other types of comets are visible in SOHOs images?
About 10% of SOHO’s comets belong to the so-called new groups. The Meyer, Marsden, and Kracht comet groups were discovered in 2002, when it was realized that some of the comets that were previously thought to be sporadic were actually related to each other. Recalculating the orbits of some non-Kreutz comets revealed additional members of these new groups. Marsden and Kracht groups are of low inclination, and are related to each other as well as to Comet 96P/Machholz as well as the daytime Arietid meteors. They have recently been shown to be short-period, with orbital periods of 5 to 6 years. Brian Marsden and others have established concordances between recent Marsden and Kracht comets and ones seen half a decade ago, demonstrating that they are quite likely returns of the same objects. Meyer-group objects have very high-inclination orbits (71 degrees), and are presumably long-period. Yet another putative group, known as Kracht2, has just 3 known members. See the Web sites of Maik Meye
