C / 1854 F1 (Great Comet)
| C / 1854 F1 (Great Comet) [i] | |
|---|---|
| Properties of the orbit ( animation ) | |
| Orbit type | parabolic |
| Numerical eccentricity | 1.0 |
| Perihelion | 0.277 AU |
| Inclination of the orbit plane | 97.5 ° |
| Perihelion | March 24, 1854 |
| Orbital velocity in the perihelion | 80.0 km / s |
| history | |
| Explorer | A. de Menciaux |
| Date of discovery | March 23, 1854 |
| Older name | 1854 II |
| Source: Unless otherwise stated, the data comes from JPL Small-Body Database Browser . Please also note the note on comet articles . | |
C / 1854 F1 (Great Comet) was a comet that could be seen with the naked eye in 1854 . Because of its brightness it is counted by some to the " Great Comets ".
Discovery and observation
Alfred de Menciaux discovered this comet near Damazan in southern France on the morning of March 23, 1854, just above the eastern horizon. The comet's tail was almost perpendicular to the horizon. In the following days the comet could no longer be found in the morning because it had moved closer to the horizon until it passed the sun north on the evening of March 26th, only to be visible in the evening sky. By April 1, there were then numerous independent discoveries and observations by several astronomers , including Edward Joseph Lowe and John Russel Hind in England . In Ireland , Andrew Graham reported a 3 ° tail on March 30th .
When the comet came closest to Earth on April 1st, it was an impressive object with a brightness of 1–2 mag, also for observation with the naked eye. On April 4th, the tail reached its greatest length of over 5 °. The comet faded noticeably by mid-April and was finally observed telescopically on April 28th.
The comet reached a maximum brightness of 0–1 mag.
Orbit
From about 200 observations over a period of 30 days, only an approximate parabolic orbit could be determined for the comet, which is inclined by around 97 ° to the ecliptic . The comet's orbit is thus almost perpendicular to the planets' orbital plane. At the point of the orbit closest to the sun ( perihelion ), which the comet traversed on March 24, 1854, it was located somewhat within the orbit of Mercury at about 41.4 million km from the sun . On March 26th it passed Mercury at a distance of 57.7 million km and on March 28th it passed Venus at a distance of 100.4 million km. Its closest approach to earth took place on April 1, at a distance of about 0.85 AU / 126.5 million km.
When the comet appeared in 1854, the eccentricity of its orbit was not significantly changed by the gravitational pull of the planets. Due to the uncertain initial data, however, it cannot be determined with certainty whether the comet is moving on an elliptical orbit. It is unlikely to return to the inner solar system , or will return many tens or hundreds of thousands of years later .
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ M. Laugier: Note on Comet II. 1854. In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Vol. 14, 1854, p. 191. ( bibcode : 1854MNRAS..14..191L ).
- ↑ GW Kronk: Cometography - A Catalog of Comets, Volume 2. 1800-1899 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003, ISBN 0-521-58505-8 , pp. 230-234.
- ^ John E. Bortle: International Comet Quarterly - The Bright-Comet Chronicles. Retrieved July 27, 2015 .
- ↑ C / 1854 F1 (Great Comet) in the Small-Body Database of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (English).
- ↑ SOLEX 11.0 A. Vitagliano. Archived from the original on September 18, 2015 ; accessed on May 2, 2014 .