Beschreibung:
In 1975 a remarkably large number of short-period comets were discovered - only the most recent number from 1977 is comparable. While the average discovery rate has been 0.8-1.0 new short-period comets per year (Kresák 1974), in 1975 there were six discoveries. In five of the cases IAU Circulars soon afterwards contained indications that close encounters with Jupiter had recently taken place (Marsden 1975, Kastel' 1975). For two of the comets, P/Kohoutek and P/Smirnova-Chernykh, also pre-encounter orbital elements were outlined, suggesting that substantial reductions of the perihelion distances had occurred.